Data from: Body condition changes at sea: Onboard calculation and telemetry of body density in diving animals ...

• Main Authors: Adachi, Taiki, Lovell, Philip, Turnbull, James, Fedak, Mike, Picard, Baptiste, Guinet, Christophe, Biuw, Martin, Keates, Theresa, Holser, Rachel, Costa, Daniel, Crocker, Daniel, Miller, Patrick
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2023
• Subjects: Animal health; bio-logging; body density; Buoyancy; marine mammal; Real-time monitoring; satellite transmission; FOS: Biological sciences; Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7291/d1r38h; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.7291/D1R38H

The ability of marine mammals to accumulate sufficient lipid energy reserves is vital for mammals' survival and successful reproduction. However, long-term monitoring of at-sea changes in body condition, specifically lipid stores, has only been possible in elephant seals performing prolonged drift dives (low-density lipids alter the rates of depth change while drifting). This approach has limited applicability to other species. Using hydrodynamic performance analysis during transit glides, we developed and validated a novel satellite-linked data logger that calculates real-time changes in body density (∝lipid stores). As gliding is ubiquitous amongst divers, the system can assess body condition in a broad array of diving animals. The tag processes high sampling-rate depth and 3-axis acceleration data to identify 5 s high pitch angle glide segments at depths >100 m. Body density is estimated for each glide using gliding speed and pitch to quantify drag versus buoyancy forces acting on the gliding animal. ... : Please refer to the published article. ...