Knowing size‐at‐age is important for determining food requirements and making inferences about the nutritional status of individuals and their populations. Accurate growth curves are also needed to quantify drug dosages to treat wounded or entangled animals. However, body sizes are often based on small numbers of measured animals that must be improved as new data become available. We updated an existing body growth model for North Atlantic right whales (NARWs) using new data from dead animals and from older individuals. Our models indicate that NARWs attain mean lengths and weights of 4.3 m and 1.0 mt at birth, and 13.1 m and 31.7 mt when sexually mature. Calves more than double their length and attain nearly three‐quarters of their asymptotic adult size during their first year of life. Overall, our length estimates agreed well with previous estimates, but our mass‐at‐age values were considerably higher. These differences revealed that necropsy data used alone in allometric models underestimate mass due possibly to several of the stranded animals in the database having been chronically entangled and in poor body condition. Augmenting the database with healthier individuals, such as harvested North Pacific right whales, yielded mass predictions that reflect both healthy and unhealthy individuals.

中文翻译：

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重新审视北大西洋右鲸（Eubalaena glacialis）的身体生长

了解年龄大小对于确定食物需求和推断个人及其人群的营养状况非常重要。还需要精确的生长曲线来量化治疗受伤或纠缠动物的药物剂量。但是，体型通常是基于少量的被测动物，随着新数据的获得，这些动物必须加以改进。我们使用死动物和年长个体的新数据更新了北大西洋右鲸（NARW）的现有人体生长模型。我们的模型表明，NARWs出生时的平均身长和体重分别为4.3 m和1.0 mt，性成熟时的平均身长和体重为13.1 m和31.7 mt。小牛的一生中，其身长增加了一倍以上，达到了成年人渐近大小的四分之三。全面的，我们的身高估算值与先前的估算值吻合得很好，但是我们的年龄量值要高得多。这些差异表明，由于在数据库中有数只滞留动物被长期纠缠且身体状况较差，因此仅在异速测量模型中使用的尸检数据低估了质量。通过使用更健康的个体（例如收获的北太平洋右鲸）增强数据库，可以得出反映健康个体和不健康个体的大量预测。