Blubber and buoyancy: Monitoring the body condition of free-ranging seals using simple dive characteristics

Journal of Experimental Biology

Volumn 206, Issue 19, 2003, Pages 3405-3423

  Biuw, Martin ^a   McConnell, Bernie ^a   Bradshaw, Corey J A ^b   Burton, Harry ^c   Fedak, Mike ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA   (Australia)

^c AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC DIVISION   (Australia)

Author keywords

Body composition; Buoyancy; Elephant seal; Foraging ecology; Marine mammal; Satellite telemetry

Indexed keywords

LIPID; SEA WATER;

ADIPOSE TISSUE; ANIMAL; ANTARCTICA; ARTICLE; BIOLOGICAL MODEL; BIOMECHANICS; BODY COMPOSITION; COMPARATIVE STUDY; DIVING; METHODOLOGY; MOVEMENT (PHYSIOLOGY); PHOCA; PHYSIOLOGY; TELECOMMUNICATION; TELEMETRY;

ADIPOSE TISSUE; ANIMALS; ANTARCTIC REGIONS; BIOMECHANICS; BODY COMPOSITION; DIVING; LIPIDS; MODELS, BIOLOGICAL; MOVEMENT; RESEARCH DESIGN; SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS; SEALS, EARLESS; SEAWATER; TELEMETRY;

ANIMALIA; ELEPHANT; MAMMALIA; MIROUNGA; MIROUNGA LEONINA; PHOCIDAE;

EID: 0142103429     PISSN: 00220949     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1242/jeb.00583     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. Argos (1989). Guide to the Argos System. Toulouse: Argos CLS.
2. Arnbom, T., Fedak, M. A., Boyd, I. L. and McConnell, B. J. (1993). Variation in weaning mass of pups in relation to maternal mass, postweaning fast duration, and weaned pup behavior in southern elephant seals (Mirounga-leonina) at South-Georgia. Can. J. Zool. 71, 1772-1781.
3. Beck, C. A., Bowen, W. D. and Iverson, S. J. (2000). Seasonal changes in buoyancy and diving behaviour of adult grey seals. J. Exp. Biol. 203, 2323-2330.
4. Bekkby, T. and Bjorge, A. (1998). Variation in stomach temperature as indicator of meal size in harbor seals, Phoca vitulina. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 14, 627-637.
5. Bell, W. J. (1991). Searching Behaviour - The Behavioural Ecology of Finding Resources. London: Chapman and Hall.
6. Bost, C. A., Georges, J. Y., Guinet, C., Cherel, Y., Putz, K., Charrassin, J. B., Handrich, Y., Zorn, T., Lage, J. and LeMaho, Y. (1997). Foraging habitat and food intake of satellite-tracked king penguins during the austral summer at Crozet Archipelago. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 150, 21-33.
7. Boyd, I., Arnbom, T. and Fedak, M. (1993). Water flux, body-composition, and metabolic-rate during molt in female southern elephant seals (Mirounga-leonina). Physiol. Zool. 66, 43-60.
8. Boyd, I. L. and Arnbom, T. (1991). Diving behavior in relation to water temperature in the southern elephant seal - foraging implications. Polar Biol. 11, 259-266.
9. Cahill, G. F., Marliss, E. B. and Aoki, T. T. (1979). Fat and nitrogen metabolism in fasting man. Hormone Metab. Res. 2, 181-185.
10. Carlini, A. R., Márquez, M. E. I., Ramdohr, S., Bornemann, H., Panarello, H. O. and Daneri, G. A. (2001). Postweaning duration and body composition changes in southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) pups at King George Island. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 74, 531-540.
11. Chappell, M. A., Shoemaker, V. H., Janes, D. N., Maloney, S. K. and Bucher, T. L. (1993). Energetics of foraging inbreeding adelie penguins. Ecology 74, 2450-2461.
12. Charrassin, J. B., Kato, A., Handrich, Y., Sato, K., Naito, Y., Ancel, A., Bost, C. A., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Ropert-Coudert, Y. and le Maho, Y. (2001). Feeding behaviour of free-ranging penguins determined by oesophageal temperature. Proc. R. Soc. Land. Ser. B Biol. Sci. 268, 151-157.
13. Crocker, D. E., le Boeuf, B. J. and Costa, D. P. (1997). Drift diving in female northern elephant seals: implications for food processing. Can. J. Zool. 75, 27-39.
14. Davis, R. W., Fuiman, L. A., Williams, T. M., Collier, S. O., Hagey, W. P., Kanatous, S. B., Kohin, S. and Horning, M. (1999). Hunting behaviour of a marine mammal beneath the Antarctic fast ice. Science 283, 993-996.
15. Fancy, S. G., Pank, L. F., Douglas, D. C., Curby, C. H., Garner, G. W., Amstrup, S. C. and Regelin, W. L. (1988). Satellite Telemetry: A New Tool for Wildlife Research and Management. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Resource Publication 172. Washington: US Fish and Wildlife Service.
16. Fedak, M., Lovell, P., McConnell, B. and Hunter, C. (2002). Methods for overcoming the constraints of long range telemetry of biological information from animals: getting more useful data from small packages. Integ. Comp. Biol. 42, 3-10.
17. Fedak, M. A. (1992). Real-time telemetry techniques: observing the behaviour and physiology of seals at sea with VHF and acoustic telemetry. Report to Workshop on Marine Mammal Tracking at Arlie House. Warrington, VA: Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
18. Fedak, M. A., Anderson, S. S. and Curry, M. G. (1983). Attachment of a radio tag to the fur of seals. J. Zool. 200, 298-300.
19. Fedak, M. A., Lovell, P. and Grant, S. M. (2001). Two approaches to compressing and interpreting time-depth information as collected by timed-depth recorders and satellite linked data loggers. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 17, 94-110.
20. Field, I. C., Bradshaw, C. J. A., McMahon, C. R., Harrington, J. and Burton, H. R. (2002). The effects of multiple anaesthesia in using tiletamine and zolasepam on Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) at Macquarie Island. Vet. Rec. 151, 235-240.
21. Gales, R. and Renouf, D. (1993). Detecting and measuring food and water-intake in captive seals using temperature telemetry. J. Wild. Man. 57, 514-519.
22. Garthe, S., Gremillet, D. and Furness, R. W. (1999). At-sea-activity and foraging efficiency in chick-rearing northern gannets Sula bassana: a case study in Shetland. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 185, 93-99.
23. Georges, J. Y., Bonadonna, F. and Guinet, C. (2000). Foraging habitat and diving activity of lactating Subantarctic fur seals in relation to sea-surface temperatures at Amsterdam Island. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 196, 291-304.
24. Gordon, A. L. (1988). Spatial and temporal variability within the Southern Ocean. In Antarctic Ocean and Resources Variability (ed. D. Sahrhage), pp. 41-56. Berlin: Springer Verlag.
25. Gu, C. and Wahba, G. (1991). Minimizing GCV/GML scores with multiple smoothing parameters via the Newton method. SIAM J. Sci. Statist. Comput. 12, 383-398.
26. Guinet, C., Dubroca, L., Lea, M. A., Goldsworthy, S., Cherel, Y., Duhamel, G., Bonadonna, F. and Donnay, J. P. (2001). Spatial distribution of foraging in female Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella in relation to oceanographic variables: a scale-dependent approach using geographic information systems. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 219, 251-264.
27. Hedd, A., Gales, R. and Renouf, D. (1996). Can stomach temperature telemetry be used to quantify prey consumption by seals? A re-examination. Polar Biol. 16, 261-270.
28. Hindell, M. A. and Lea, M. A. (1998). Heart rate, swimming speed, and estimated oxygen consumption of a free-ranging southern elephant seal. Physiol. Zool. 71, 74-84.
29. Hindell, M. A., McConnell, B. J., Fedak, M. A., Slip, D. J., Burton, H. R., Reijnders, P. J. H. and McMahon, C. R. (1999). Environmental and physiological determinants of successful foraging by naive southern elephant seal pups during their first trip to sea. Can. J. Zool. 77, 1807-1821.
30. Hooker, S. K., Boyd, I. L., Jessopp, M., Cox, O., Blackwell, J., Boveng, P. L. and Bengtson, J. L. (2002). Monitoring the prey-field of marine predators: Combining digital imaging with datalogging tags. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 18, 680-697.
31. Ihaka, R. and Gentleman, R. (1996). R: a language for data analysis and graphics. J. Comp. Graph. Stat. 5, 299-314.
32. Klimley, A. P., le Boeuf, B. J., Cantara, K. M., Richert, J. E., Davis, S. F., van Sommeran, S. and Kelly, J. T. (2001). The hunting strategy of white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) near a seal colony. Mar. biol. 138, 617-636.
33. Koenker, R. W. and Bassett, G. W. (1978). Regression quantiles. Econometrica 46, 33-50.
34. Kooyman, G. L. (1965). Techniques used in measuring diving capacities of Weddell seals. Polar Rec. 12, 391-394.
35. Kooyman, G. L. (1989). Diverse Divers: Physiology and Behaviour. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
36. Kooyman, G. L., Cherel, Y., Lemaho, Y., Croxall, J. P., Thorson, P. H. and Ridoux, V. (1992). Diving behavior and energetics during foraging cycles in king penguins. Ecol. Monogr. 62, 143-163.
37. Krockenberger, M. B. and Bryden, M. M. (1994). Rate of passage of digesta through the alimentary-tract of southern elephant seals (Mirounga-Leonina) (Carnivora, Phocidae). J. Zool. 234, 229-237.
38. Le Boeuf, B. J., Crocker, D. E., Costa, D. P., Blackwell, S. B., Webb, P. M. and Houser, D. S. (2000). Foraging ecology of northern elephant seals. Ecol. Monogr. 70, 353-382.
39. Le Boeuf, B. J., Naito, Y., Asaga, T., Crocker, D. and Costa, D. P. (1992). Swim speed in a female northern elephant seal - metabolic and foraging implications. Can. J. Zool. 70, 786-795.
40. Lesage, V., Hammill, M. O. and Kovacs, K. M. (1999). Functional classification of harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) dives using depth profiles, swimming velocity, and an index of foraging success. Can. J. Zool. 77, 74-87.
41. Lovvorn, J. R. and Jones, D. R. (1991a). Body mass, volume, and buoyancy of some aquatic birds, and their relation to locomotor strategies. Can. J. Zool. 69, 2888-2892.
42. Lovvorn, J. R. and Jones, D. R. (1991b). Effects of body size, body fat, and change in pressure with depth on buoyancy and costs of diving in ducks (Aythya spp.). Can. J. Zool. 69, 2879-2887.
43. McConnell, B. J. (1986). Tracking grey seals using service ARGOS. Mesogee 46, 93-94.
44. McConnell, B. J., Fedak, M. A., Burton, H. R., Englehard, G. H. and Reijnders, P. (2002). Movements and foraging areas of naive, recently weaned southern elephant seal pups. J. Anim. Ecol. 71, 65-78.
45. McMahon, C. R., Burton, H., McLean, S., Slip, D. and Bester, M. (2000a). Field immobilisation of southern elephant seals with intravenous tiletamine and zolazepam. Vet. Rec. 146, 251-254.
46. McMahon, C. R., Burton, H. R. and Bester, M. N. (2000b). Weaning mass and the future survival of juvenile southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, at Macquarie Island. Antarctic Sci. 12, 149-153.
47. Minamikawa, S., Naito, Y., Sato, K., Matsuzawa, Y., Bando, T. and Sakamoto, W. (2000). Maintenance of neutral buoyancy by depth selection in the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta. J. Exp. Biol. 203, 2967-2975.
48. Moore, F. D., Olsen, K. H., McMurray, J. D., Parker, H. V., Ball, M. R. and Boyden, C. M. (1963). The Body Cell Mass and its Supporting Environment: Body Composition in Health and Disease. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
49. Nagy, K. A. and Costa, D. P. (1980). Water flux in animals: analysis of potential errors in the tritiated water method. Am. J. Physiol. 238, R454-R465.
50. Nowacek, D. P., Johnson, M. P., Tyack, P. L., Shorter, K. A., McLellan, W. A. and Pabst, D. A. (2001). Buoyant balaenids: the ups and downs of buoyancy in right whales. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B Biol. Sci. 268, 1811-1816.
51. Putz, K. and Bost, C. A. (1994). Feeding-behavior of free-ranging king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus). Ecology 75, 489-497.
52. Putz, K., Wilson, R. P., Charrassin, J. B., Raclot, T., Lage, J., le Maho, Y., Kierspel, M. A. M., Culik, B. M. and Adelung, D. (1998). Foraging strategy of king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) during summer at the Crozet Islands. Ecology 79, 1905-1921.
53. Reilly, J. J. and Fedak, M. A. (1990). Measurement of the body-composition of living gray seals by hydrogen isotope-dilution. J. Appl. Physiol. 69, 885-891.
54. Sato, K., Mitani, Y., Cameron, M. F., Siniff, D. B., Watanabe, Y. and Naito, Y. (2002a). Deep foraging dives in relation to the energy depletion of Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) mothers during lactation. Polar Biol. 25, 696-702.
55. Sato, K., Naito, Y., Kato, A., Niizuma, Y., Watanuki, Y., Charrassin, J. B., Bost, C. A., Handrich, Y. and le Maho, Y. (2002b). Buoyancy and maximal diving depth in penguins: do they control inhaling air volume? J. Exp. Biol. 205, 1189-1197.
56. Sato, K., Mitani, Y., Cameron, M. F., Siniff, D. B. and Naito, Y. (2003). Factors affecting stroking patterns and body angle in diving Weddell seals under natural conditions. J. Exp. Biol. 206, 1461-1470.
57. Schreer, J. F. and Testa, J. W. (1996). Classification of Weddell seal diving behavior. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 12, 227-250.
58. Tanaka, H., Sato, K., Matsuzawa, Y., Sakamoto, W., Naito, Y. and Kuroyanagi, K. (1995). Analysis of possibility of feeding of loggerhead turtles during internesting periods based on stomach temperature-measurements. Nippon Suisan Gakkaishi 61, 339-345.
59. Venables, W. N. and Ripley, B. D. (1994). Modern Applied Statistics With S-Plus. New York: Springer-Verlag.
60. Vincent, C., McConnell, B., Ridoux, V. and Fedak, M. (2002). Assessment of Argos location accuracy from satellite tags deployed on captive grey seals. Mar. Mamm. Sci. 18, 156-166.
61. Vogel, S. (1981). Live in Moving Fluids. Boston: Willard Grant Press.
62. Webb, P. M., Crocker, D. E., Blackwell, S. B., Costa, D. P. and le Boeuf, B. J. (1998). Effects of buoyancy on the diving behavior of northern elephant seals. J. Exp. Biol. 201, 2349-2358.
63. Weimerskirch, H. and Wilson, R. P. (1992). When do wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans forage? Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 86, 297-300.
64. Williams, T. M. and Kooyman, G. L. (1985). Swimming performance and hydrodynamic characteristics of harbor seals Phoca vitulina. Physiol. Zool. 58, 576-589.
65. Wilson, R., Peters, G., Regel, J., Gremillet, D., Putz, K., Kierspel, M., Weimerskirch, H. and Cooper, J. (1998). Short retention times of stomach temperature loggers in free-living seabirds: is there hope in the spring? Mar. Biol. 130, 559-566.
66. Wilson, R. P. (1992). Environmental monitoring with seabirds - do we need additional technology. S. Afr. J. Mar. Sci. 12, 919-926.
67. Wilson, R. P., Putz, K., Gremillet, D., Culik, B. M., Kierspel, M., Regel, J., Bost, C. A., Lage, J. and Cooper, J. (1995). Reliability of stomach temperature-changes in determining feeding characteristics of seabirds. J. Exp. Biol. 198, 1115-1135.