Hunting Behavior of a Marine Mammal Beneath the Antarctic Fast Ice

The hunting behavior of a marine mammal was studied beneath the Antarctic fast ice with an animal-borne video system and data recorder. Weddell seals stalked large Antarctic cod and the smaller subice fish Pagothenia borchgrevinki , often with the under-ice surface for backlighting, which implies th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Davis, R. W., Fuiman, L. A., Williams, T. M., Collier, S. O., Hagey, W. P., Kanatous, S. B., Kohin, S., Horning, M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1999
Subjects:
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Weddell
Antarc*
Weddell Seals
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.283.5404.993
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.283.5404.993
Description
Summary:The hunting behavior of a marine mammal was studied beneath the Antarctic fast ice with an animal-borne video system and data recorder. Weddell seals stalked large Antarctic cod and the smaller subice fish Pagothenia borchgrevinki , often with the under-ice surface for backlighting, which implies that vision is important for hunting. They approached to within centimeters of cod without startling the fish. Seals flushed P. borchgrevinki by blowing air into subice crevices or pursued them into the platelet ice. These observations highlight the broad range of insights that are possible with simultaneous recordings of video, audio, three-dimensional dive paths, and locomotor effort.

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