The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips
Most pinnipeds disperse from centralised terrestrial sites to forage at sea, but the factors that result in variation inforaging-trip characteristics remain unclear. We investigated the influence of sex and body size on the summer foraging activityof radio-tagged harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) from...
Published in: | Canadian Journal of Zoology |
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Language: | English |
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Canadian Science Publishing
1998
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z98-035 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z98-035 |
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crcansciencepubl:10.1139/z98-035 2024-06-23T07:53:31+00:00 The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips Thompson, Paul M Mackay, Ann Tollit, Dominic J Enderby, Simon Hammond, Philip S 1998 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z98-035 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z98-035 en eng Canadian Science Publishing http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 76, issue 6, page 1044-1053 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 journal-article 1998 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/z98-035 2024-06-13T04:10:52Z Most pinnipeds disperse from centralised terrestrial sites to forage at sea, but the factors that result in variation inforaging-trip characteristics remain unclear. We investigated the influence of sex and body size on the summer foraging activityof radio-tagged harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) from Scotland. Mean foraging-trip duration (range 17257 h) was stronglycorrelated with mean foraging range (range 4.355.0 km), but both were significantly shorter for females. The proportion oftime spent at sea, mean trip duration, and mean foraging range were all positively related to body size. Comparison with datafrom other study areas suggests that both environmental and endogenous factors shape foraging characteristics in this species.These sex and body size related differences in activity pattern and foraging range have important implications for themethodologies currently used to assess the population size, population energy requirements, and diet composition of coastalpinnipeds. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbour seal Phoca vitulina Canadian Science Publishing Canadian Journal of Zoology 76 6 1044 1053 |
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Open Polar |
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Canadian Science Publishing |
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crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
description |
Most pinnipeds disperse from centralised terrestrial sites to forage at sea, but the factors that result in variation inforaging-trip characteristics remain unclear. We investigated the influence of sex and body size on the summer foraging activityof radio-tagged harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) from Scotland. Mean foraging-trip duration (range 17257 h) was stronglycorrelated with mean foraging range (range 4.355.0 km), but both were significantly shorter for females. The proportion oftime spent at sea, mean trip duration, and mean foraging range were all positively related to body size. Comparison with datafrom other study areas suggests that both environmental and endogenous factors shape foraging characteristics in this species.These sex and body size related differences in activity pattern and foraging range have important implications for themethodologies currently used to assess the population size, population energy requirements, and diet composition of coastalpinnipeds. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Thompson, Paul M Mackay, Ann Tollit, Dominic J Enderby, Simon Hammond, Philip S |
spellingShingle |
Thompson, Paul M Mackay, Ann Tollit, Dominic J Enderby, Simon Hammond, Philip S The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
author_facet |
Thompson, Paul M Mackay, Ann Tollit, Dominic J Enderby, Simon Hammond, Philip S |
author_sort |
Thompson, Paul M |
title |
The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
title_short |
The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
title_full |
The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
title_fullStr |
The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
title_full_unstemmed |
The influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
title_sort |
influence of body size and sex on the characteristics of harbour seal foraging trips |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
1998 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z98-035 http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z98-035 |
genre |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
genre_facet |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
op_source |
Canadian Journal of Zoology volume 76, issue 6, page 1044-1053 ISSN 0008-4301 1480-3283 |
op_rights |
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/page/about/CorporateTextAndDataMining |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/z98-035 |
container_title |
Canadian Journal of Zoology |
container_volume |
76 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
1044 |
op_container_end_page |
1053 |
_version_ |
1802645231058812928 |