Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals
We describe and review the development of the diving and foraging pattern of northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, during migrations over the first 2 years of life. The diving pattern and migratory tracks of 23 juveniles, 9–27 months of age, from Año Nuevo and Piedras Blancas, California...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Zoology |
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Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
1996
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z96-181 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z96-181 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/z96-181 2024-05-19T07:39:43+00:00 Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals Boeuf, Burney J. Le Morris, Patricia A. Blackwell, Susanna B. Crocker, Daniel E. Costa, Daniel P. 1996 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z96-181 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z96-181 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 74, issue 9, page 1632-1644 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 journal-article 1996 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/z96-181 2024-04-25T06:52:02Z We describe and review the development of the diving and foraging pattern of northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, during migrations over the first 2 years of life. The diving pattern and migratory tracks of 23 juveniles, 9–27 months of age, from Año Nuevo and Piedras Blancas, California, were recorded with attached time–depth recorders and Argos satellite tags. The seals exhibited a general diving pattern like that of adults, diving deep (373 ± 77 m per dive (mean ± SD)), long (15.2 ± 2.6 min per dive), and continuously (88.7 ± 2.7% of the time submerged while at sea). Level of performance increased with age and experience up to 2 years of age, the end of the fourth migration, when modal diving performance was equal to that of adults. Juveniles migrated north to the waters west of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, moving more slowly and not as far as adults. By the third trip to sea, males began to exhibit more flat-bottomed dives than females, a sex difference observed in adults, suggesting that males supplement a diet of pelagic organisms with benthic prey. These data and related observations of elephant seals suggest that the greatest physiological changes enabling an animal to dive occur near the rookery following weaning, before the first trip to sea; transition to a pelagic existence is difficult, as reflected by high mortality during the first migration; improvement of diving skills continues up to 2 years of age; and sex differences in foraging behavior and foraging location, similar to those seen in adults, are evident before the seals reach 2 years of age. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seals Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Zoology 74 9 1632 1644 |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
We describe and review the development of the diving and foraging pattern of northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, during migrations over the first 2 years of life. The diving pattern and migratory tracks of 23 juveniles, 9–27 months of age, from Año Nuevo and Piedras Blancas, California, were recorded with attached time–depth recorders and Argos satellite tags. The seals exhibited a general diving pattern like that of adults, diving deep (373 ± 77 m per dive (mean ± SD)), long (15.2 ± 2.6 min per dive), and continuously (88.7 ± 2.7% of the time submerged while at sea). Level of performance increased with age and experience up to 2 years of age, the end of the fourth migration, when modal diving performance was equal to that of adults. Juveniles migrated north to the waters west of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, moving more slowly and not as far as adults. By the third trip to sea, males began to exhibit more flat-bottomed dives than females, a sex difference observed in adults, suggesting that males supplement a diet of pelagic organisms with benthic prey. These data and related observations of elephant seals suggest that the greatest physiological changes enabling an animal to dive occur near the rookery following weaning, before the first trip to sea; transition to a pelagic existence is difficult, as reflected by high mortality during the first migration; improvement of diving skills continues up to 2 years of age; and sex differences in foraging behavior and foraging location, similar to those seen in adults, are evident before the seals reach 2 years of age. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le Morris, Patricia A. Blackwell, Susanna B. Crocker, Daniel E. Costa, Daniel P. |
spellingShingle |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le Morris, Patricia A. Blackwell, Susanna B. Crocker, Daniel E. Costa, Daniel P. Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
author_facet |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le Morris, Patricia A. Blackwell, Susanna B. Crocker, Daniel E. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_sort |
Boeuf, Burney J. Le |
title |
Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
title_short |
Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
title_full |
Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
title_fullStr |
Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
title_sort |
diving behavior of juvenile northern elephant seals |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
1996 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z96-181 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z96-181 |
genre |
Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seals |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 74, issue 9, page 1632-1644 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/z96-181 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
74 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
1632 |
op_container_end_page |
1644 |
_version_ |
1799479299132096512 |