Using citizen science photographs to identify reproductive events in an oviparous elasmobranch.

Abstract

Identifying critical habitats is important for the effective management of vulnerable species. Critical habitats, such as mating or nursery grounds, support populations during key life stages and help to maximise reproductive output and population growth. In elasmobranchs, mating often happens over a defined season, suggesting sites associated with this process may only require temporal protection. However, knowledge gaps on such sites exist for many elasmobranchs due to the challenges associated with identifying temporal mating periods, which hinders conservation efforts. Here, we investigated the application of photographs to estimate reproductive timing in an oviparous elasmobranch, the flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius), as a non-invasive and low-cost alternative to other approaches. Using a pre-existing citizen science photo-ID database of over 2000 images, we identified signs of reproductive behaviour: the presence or absence of pelvic swelling, bite wounds and scratch wounds. Statistical models were created for each feature to explore seasonal trends and other parameters explaining their presence. Seasonal trends were present for all features and feature occurrence differed with sex. The occurrence of bite wounds and pelvic swelling in flapper skate peaked over winter and spring months, suggesting a winter-spring mating and egg-laying period. These results are corroborated by previous reproductive research on the flapper skate, suggesting the applied method is a valid tool to estimate reproductive timing in an elusive elasmobranch. The approach could be applied to other flapper skate populations and other elasmobranch species, helping to close existing knowledge gaps on reproductive behaviours.