As species become rare and approach extinction, purported sightings can be controversial, especially when scarce management resources are at stake. We consider the probability that each individual sighting of a series is valid. Obtaining these probabilities requires a strict framework to ensure that they are as accurately representative as possible. We used a process, which has proven to provid...

A professional TV crew traveled to Gulf Breeze, Florida on two occasions in the spring of 1992 at a time when sightings were occurring on a weekly basis. On each occasion anomalous lights were observed and videotaped passing through the Gulf Breeze skies. This paper reports briefly on the first sighting and concentrates on the analysis of the second sighting when the TV crew used a special "hig...

Here, we examine the distribution, habitat use, and migratory destinations of North Pacific humpback whales wintering off Central America. Coastal boat surveys were conducted off Costa Rica and Panama between 1996 and 2003. In 1999, a broader survey was conducted along most of Central America. Over 23,000 km were surveyed, with the greatest effort off southern Costa Rica. We made 191 sightings ...

Sea turtles spend the majority of their immature and adult lives in foraging grounds, yet few studies have examined their abundance and condition in these areas when compared to more accessible nesting beach habitats. Here, a 5-year dive log, photo-identification (photo-ID) and surface encounter datasets were used to investigate the abundance, individual movements and distribution of sea turtle...

France is traditionally a staging area for Greylag Geese Anser anser migrating from northwest Europe to wintering sites in Spain, though increasing numbers have wintered in France over the last three decades. This paper considers sightings within France of neck-banded individuals marked elsewhere in Europe since the 1980s, to determine the origin of Greylag Geese staging and now wintering in th...

Southall et al. (2006) concluded that a near mass stranding (MS) of melonheaded whales (MHWs), Peponocephala electra, in Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii, on 3–4 July 2004, was likely related to the operation of mid-frequency sonars (MFS). However, subsequent authors argued that the nearly simultaneous entry of MHWs into Sasanhaya Bay, Rota (∼5,740 km away) made this conclusion untenable. They sugges...

An aerial line transect survey of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) conducted off West Greenland in 2007 was used to estimate the current abundance of fin whales on the summer feeding ground. A total of 24 sightings of fin whale groups were collected during 8,632km of survey effort in sea states <5. Based on conventional distance sampling techniques an abundance of 4,359 whales (95% CI 1,879–1...

This study analyzed the interaction between the small-scale fishers and the Mediterranean Monk Seal (MMS) in an important Peninsula and two important marine protected areas on the southwest coast of Turkey. The survey was carried out from January 2014 to December in 2015 in the Muğla Province. Small-scale fishers in the study sites were interviewed to assess the interactions between small-scale...

Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna Zaglossus attenboroughi is known from a single specimen collected in the Cyclops Mountains of northern Papua in 1961, and has previously been considered to be extremely rare if not already extinct. New fieldwork to investigate the continued survival of Z. attenboroughiwas conducted on the north and south slopes of the Cyclops Mountains in May 2007 using commun...

—Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) historically ranged throughout the eastern and southeastern Caribbean Sea during the winter months. Commercial whaling from the 1820s to the early 1900s depleted the population. A combined passive acoustic and visual survey for humpback whales was conducted to assess the current winter distribution of this species in areas where it was exploited to depl...