Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals
An earlier study showed that female northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) dive deeply and continuously during the first 1–3 weeks at sea following lactation. We report that this dive pattern is maintained for the entire 2½-month period at sea. Time–depth recorders were attached to six ad...
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1989
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-355 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z89-355 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/z89-355 2023-12-17T10:29:40+01:00 Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals Boeuf, Burney J. Le Naito, Yasuhiko Huntley, Anthony C. Asaga, Tomohiro 1989 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-355 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z89-355 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 67, issue 10, page 2514-2519 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 1989 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/z89-355 2023-11-19T13:39:23Z An earlier study showed that female northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) dive deeply and continuously during the first 1–3 weeks at sea following lactation. We report that this dive pattern is maintained for the entire 2½-month period at sea. Time–depth recorders were attached to six adult females at Año Nuevo, California; three instruments recorded continuously and three instruments recorded every 3rd day at sea. The mean dive rate was 2.5–3.3 dives per hour, with a mean of < 3.5 min on the surface between dives. This resulted in females spending 83–90% of the time at sea underwater. Interruption of continuous diving, characterized by extended surface intervals with a mean of 51.9 ± 65.5 min, was rare, following only 0.42% of the dives. Modal dive duration per female was in the range 17.1–22.5 min. The longest dive was 62 min and was followed by a surface interval of < 2.6 min. Modal dive depth per female was in the range 500–700 m; three females had dives that exceeded 1000 m, with the deepest dive estimated at 1250 m. Deep diving to 500 m or more was always preceded by a descending-staircase pattern of initially shallow to increasingly deeper dives. The continuous, deep diving pattern of this pelagic seal is evidently a steady-state condition. This has important implications for understanding diving adaptations and the physiological processes underlying them. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seals Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) Canadian Journal of Zoology 67 10 2514 2519 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Boeuf, Burney J. Le Naito, Yasuhiko Huntley, Anthony C. Asaga, Tomohiro Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
An earlier study showed that female northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) dive deeply and continuously during the first 1–3 weeks at sea following lactation. We report that this dive pattern is maintained for the entire 2½-month period at sea. Time–depth recorders were attached to six adult females at Año Nuevo, California; three instruments recorded continuously and three instruments recorded every 3rd day at sea. The mean dive rate was 2.5–3.3 dives per hour, with a mean of < 3.5 min on the surface between dives. This resulted in females spending 83–90% of the time at sea underwater. Interruption of continuous diving, characterized by extended surface intervals with a mean of 51.9 ± 65.5 min, was rare, following only 0.42% of the dives. Modal dive duration per female was in the range 17.1–22.5 min. The longest dive was 62 min and was followed by a surface interval of < 2.6 min. Modal dive depth per female was in the range 500–700 m; three females had dives that exceeded 1000 m, with the deepest dive estimated at 1250 m. Deep diving to 500 m or more was always preceded by a descending-staircase pattern of initially shallow to increasingly deeper dives. The continuous, deep diving pattern of this pelagic seal is evidently a steady-state condition. This has important implications for understanding diving adaptations and the physiological processes underlying them. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le Naito, Yasuhiko Huntley, Anthony C. Asaga, Tomohiro |
author_facet |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le Naito, Yasuhiko Huntley, Anthony C. Asaga, Tomohiro |
author_sort |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le |
title |
Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
title_short |
Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
title_full |
Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
title_fullStr |
Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
title_sort |
prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
1989 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-355 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z89-355 |
genre |
Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seals |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 67, issue 10, page 2514-2519 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/z89-355 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
67 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
2514 |
op_container_end_page |
2519 |
_version_ |
1785582125585530880 |