Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina)
Access to different environments may lead to inter-population behavioural changes within a species that allow populations to exploit their immediate environments. Elephant seals from Marion Island (MI) and King George Island (KGI) (Isla 25 de Mayo) forage in different oceanic environments and eviden...
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:30840 2024-09-15T18:04:41+00:00 Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) James, B.C. McIntyre, Trevor Tosh, C. A. Bornemann, Horst Plötz, Joachim Bester, M. N. 2012 https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/30840/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.39756 unknown SPRINGER James, B. , McIntyre, T. , Tosh, C. A. , Bornemann, H. , Plötz, J. and Bester, M. N. (2012) Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) , Polar Biology, 35 , pp. 1759-1766 . doi:10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3> , hdl:10013/epic.39756 EPIC3Polar Biology, SPRINGER, 35, pp. 1759-1766, ISSN: 0722-4060 Article isiRev 2012 ftawi https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3 2024-06-24T04:05:07Z Access to different environments may lead to inter-population behavioural changes within a species that allow populations to exploit their immediate environments. Elephant seals from Marion Island (MI) and King George Island (KGI) (Isla 25 de Mayo) forage in different oceanic environments and evidently employ different foraging strategies. This study elucidates some of the factors influencing the diving behaviour of male southern elephant seals from these populations tracked between 1999 and 2002. Mixed-effects models were used to determine the influence of bathymetry, population of origin, body length (as a proxy for size) and individual variation on the diving behaviour of adult male elephant seals from the two populations. Males from KGI and MI showed differences in all dive parameters. MI males dived deeper and longer (median: 652.0 m and 34.00 min) than KGI males (median: 359.1 m and 25.50 min). KGI males appeared to forage both benthically and pelagically while MI males in this study rarely reached depths close to the seafloor and appeared to forage pelagically. Model outputs indicate that males from the two populations showed substantial differences in their dive depths, even when foraging in areas of similar water depth. Whereas dive depths were not significantly influenced by the size of the animals, size played a significant role in dive durations, though this was also influenced by the population that elephant seals originated from. This study provides some support for inter-population differences in dive behaviour of male southern elephant seals. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seals Isla 25 de Mayo King George Island Marion Island Mirounga leonina Polar Biology Southern Elephant Seals Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Polar Biology 35 11 1759 1766 |
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Open Polar |
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Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
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ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
Access to different environments may lead to inter-population behavioural changes within a species that allow populations to exploit their immediate environments. Elephant seals from Marion Island (MI) and King George Island (KGI) (Isla 25 de Mayo) forage in different oceanic environments and evidently employ different foraging strategies. This study elucidates some of the factors influencing the diving behaviour of male southern elephant seals from these populations tracked between 1999 and 2002. Mixed-effects models were used to determine the influence of bathymetry, population of origin, body length (as a proxy for size) and individual variation on the diving behaviour of adult male elephant seals from the two populations. Males from KGI and MI showed differences in all dive parameters. MI males dived deeper and longer (median: 652.0 m and 34.00 min) than KGI males (median: 359.1 m and 25.50 min). KGI males appeared to forage both benthically and pelagically while MI males in this study rarely reached depths close to the seafloor and appeared to forage pelagically. Model outputs indicate that males from the two populations showed substantial differences in their dive depths, even when foraging in areas of similar water depth. Whereas dive depths were not significantly influenced by the size of the animals, size played a significant role in dive durations, though this was also influenced by the population that elephant seals originated from. This study provides some support for inter-population differences in dive behaviour of male southern elephant seals. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
James, B.C. McIntyre, Trevor Tosh, C. A. Bornemann, Horst Plötz, Joachim Bester, M. N. |
spellingShingle |
James, B.C. McIntyre, Trevor Tosh, C. A. Bornemann, Horst Plötz, Joachim Bester, M. N. Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) |
author_facet |
James, B.C. McIntyre, Trevor Tosh, C. A. Bornemann, Horst Plötz, Joachim Bester, M. N. |
author_sort |
James, B.C. |
title |
Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) |
title_short |
Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) |
title_full |
Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) |
title_fullStr |
Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) |
title_sort |
inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (mirounga leonina) |
publisher |
SPRINGER |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/30840/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.39756 |
genre |
Elephant Seals Isla 25 de Mayo King George Island Marion Island Mirounga leonina Polar Biology Southern Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seals Isla 25 de Mayo King George Island Marion Island Mirounga leonina Polar Biology Southern Elephant Seals |
op_source |
EPIC3Polar Biology, SPRINGER, 35, pp. 1759-1766, ISSN: 0722-4060 |
op_relation |
James, B. , McIntyre, T. , Tosh, C. A. , Bornemann, H. , Plötz, J. and Bester, M. N. (2012) Inter-population differences in diving behaviour of adult male southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) , Polar Biology, 35 , pp. 1759-1766 . doi:10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3> , hdl:10013/epic.39756 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-012-1214-3 |
container_title |
Polar Biology |
container_volume |
35 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
1759 |
op_container_end_page |
1766 |
_version_ |
1810442300270051328 |