Bayesian inference of toothed whale lifespans

Abstract Accurate measures of lifespan and age-specific mortality are important both for understanding life-history evolution and for informing conservation and population management strategies. The most accurate data to estimate lifespan are from longitudinal studies, but for many species (especially those, such as toothed whales, that are wide ranging and inhabit environments that are difficult to access) these longitudinal data are not available. However, other forms of age-structured data, such as data from mass strandings, are available for many toothed species, and using these data to infer patterns of age-specific mortality and lifespan remains an important outstanding challenge. We developed and tested a Bayesian mortality model to derive parameters of a mortality function from age-structured data while accounting for potential error introduced by mistakes in age estimation, sampling biases, and population growth. We then searched the literature to assemble a database of 269 published age-structured toothed whale datasets. We applied our mortality model to derive lifespan estimates for 32 species of female and 33 species of male toothed whale. We also used our model to characterize sex differences in lifespan in toothed whales. Our mortality model allowed us to curate the most complete and accurate collection of toothed whale lifespans to date.