d o e

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2002
• Subjects: Antarctic fur seal; diving; oceanography; Polar Frontal Zone; provisioning; spatial scale; Antarctic; Indian; Kerguelen; Antarc*; Antarctic Fur Seal; Antarctic Fur Seals; Arctocephalus gazella
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.526.7471; http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/60/5/990.full.pdf

ow nloaded from Diving activity, foraging locations and pup provisioning behaviour of 10 female Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) were examined with respect to a range of oceanographic parameters (sea surface temperature, chlorophyll distribution and bathymetry) at the Kerguelen Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean in February 2000. A multivariate analysis of the environmental parameters at each of the nightly foraging locations indicated the existence of two ecoregions within the foraging range of the seals. Five seals actively foraged in oceanic waters (1870m) with relatively warm surface water (5.4C) to the north and east of the colony (ecoregion 1), while four others travelled to the southeast (ecoregion 2) to waters typical of the surface expression of the Polar Front (3.7C) located over the continental shelf break (597m). Only one seal foraged in both regions. Diving behaviour, parameterised on a nightly basis using seven variables, clearly differed between regions, with the diving activity in the warmer ecoregion 1 being characterised by deep dives (55m), and relatively little time spent diving (47%). Conversely, dives within ecoregion 2 were, on