Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals
1. Ontogeny of diving and foraging behaviour in marine top predators is poorly understood despite its importance in population recruitment. This lack of knowledge is partly due to the difficulties of monitoring juveniles in the wild, which is linked to high mortality early in life. 2. Pinnipeds are...
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ftdryad:oai:v1.datadryad.org:10255/dryad.197062 2023-05-15T16:05:24+02:00 Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals Orgeret, Florian Cox, Sam L. Weimerskirch, Henri Guinet, Christophe Kerguelen 2015 2018-12-21T12:17:09Z http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.197062 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07 unknown doi:10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07/1 doi:10.1002/ece3.4717 doi:10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07 Orgeret F, Cox SL, Weimerskirch H, Guinet C (2019) Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals. Ecology and Evolution 9(1): 223-236. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.197062 ontogeny diving behaviour Article 2018 ftdryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07/1 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4717 2020-01-01T16:18:22Z 1. Ontogeny of diving and foraging behaviour in marine top predators is poorly understood despite its importance in population recruitment. This lack of knowledge is partly due to the difficulties of monitoring juveniles in the wild, which is linked to high mortality early in life. 2. Pinnipeds are good models for studying the development of foraging behaviours because juveniles are large enough to robustly carry tracking devices for many months. Moreover, parental assistance is absent after a juvenile departs for its first foraging trip, minimising confounding effects of parental input on the development of foraging skills. 3. In this study, we tracked 20 newly-weaned juvenile southern elephant seals from Kerguelen Islands for up to 338 days during their first trip at sea following weaning. We used a new generation of satellite relay tags, which allow for the transmission of dive, accelerometer and location data. We also monitored, at the same time, nine adult females from the colony during their post-breeding trips, in order to compare diving and foraging behaviours. 4. Juveniles showed a gradual improvement through time in their foraging skills. Like adults females, they remarkably adjusted their swimming effort according to temporal changes in buoyancy (i.e. a proxy of their body condition). They also did not appear to exceed their aerobic physiological diving limits, although dives were constrained by their smaller size compared to adults. Changes in buoyancy appeared to also influence their decision to either keep foraging or return to land, alongside the duration of their haul outs and choice of foraging habitat (oceanic vs plateau). 5. Further studies are thus needed to better understand how patterns in juveniles survival, and therefore elephant seal populations, might be affected by their changes in foraging skills and changes in their environmental conditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Kerguelen Islands Southern Elephant Seals Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) Kerguelen Kerguelen Islands |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Dryad Digital Repository (Duke University) |
op_collection_id |
ftdryad |
language |
unknown |
topic |
ontogeny diving behaviour |
spellingShingle |
ontogeny diving behaviour Orgeret, Florian Cox, Sam L. Weimerskirch, Henri Guinet, Christophe Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
topic_facet |
ontogeny diving behaviour |
description |
1. Ontogeny of diving and foraging behaviour in marine top predators is poorly understood despite its importance in population recruitment. This lack of knowledge is partly due to the difficulties of monitoring juveniles in the wild, which is linked to high mortality early in life. 2. Pinnipeds are good models for studying the development of foraging behaviours because juveniles are large enough to robustly carry tracking devices for many months. Moreover, parental assistance is absent after a juvenile departs for its first foraging trip, minimising confounding effects of parental input on the development of foraging skills. 3. In this study, we tracked 20 newly-weaned juvenile southern elephant seals from Kerguelen Islands for up to 338 days during their first trip at sea following weaning. We used a new generation of satellite relay tags, which allow for the transmission of dive, accelerometer and location data. We also monitored, at the same time, nine adult females from the colony during their post-breeding trips, in order to compare diving and foraging behaviours. 4. Juveniles showed a gradual improvement through time in their foraging skills. Like adults females, they remarkably adjusted their swimming effort according to temporal changes in buoyancy (i.e. a proxy of their body condition). They also did not appear to exceed their aerobic physiological diving limits, although dives were constrained by their smaller size compared to adults. Changes in buoyancy appeared to also influence their decision to either keep foraging or return to land, alongside the duration of their haul outs and choice of foraging habitat (oceanic vs plateau). 5. Further studies are thus needed to better understand how patterns in juveniles survival, and therefore elephant seal populations, might be affected by their changes in foraging skills and changes in their environmental conditions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Orgeret, Florian Cox, Sam L. Weimerskirch, Henri Guinet, Christophe |
author_facet |
Orgeret, Florian Cox, Sam L. Weimerskirch, Henri Guinet, Christophe |
author_sort |
Orgeret, Florian |
title |
Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
title_short |
Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
title_full |
Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
title_fullStr |
Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
title_sort |
data from: body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.197062 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07 |
op_coverage |
Kerguelen 2015 |
geographic |
Kerguelen Kerguelen Islands |
geographic_facet |
Kerguelen Kerguelen Islands |
genre |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Kerguelen Islands Southern Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Kerguelen Islands Southern Elephant Seals |
op_relation |
doi:10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07/1 doi:10.1002/ece3.4717 doi:10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07 Orgeret F, Cox SL, Weimerskirch H, Guinet C (2019) Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals. Ecology and Evolution 9(1): 223-236. http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.197062 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qq6mb07/1 https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4717 |
_version_ |
1766401292729581568 |