Underwater vocalizations in foraging female Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) in the Kerguelen Islands

• Published in: Marine Mammal Science
• Main Authors: Chevallay, Mathilde, Guinet, Christophe, Jeanniard Du Dot, Tiphaine
• Other Authors: Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: Arctocephalus gazella; foraging behavior; vocalizations; [SDV.BA.ZV]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Animal biology/Vertebrate Zoology; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Antarctic; Kerguelen; Kerguelen Islands; Antarc*; Antarctic Fur Seals
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04698976; https://hal.science/hal-04698976/document; https://hal.science/hal-04698976/file/MC-2024-1.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.13118

International audience In the marine environment, many animals use sound to interact and communicate with their conspecifics or other species. Over the last decades, the development of sound recording systems has allowed a significant advance in our knowledge of sound production in marine animals. We deployed miniature sound and movement tags on Antarctic fur seals (AFS), a small otariid foraging on mesopelagic fish, to uncover potential underwater vocalizations in this species. Tags recorded underwater sounds synchronously with high‐resolution AFS movements and diving behavior, allowing us to investigate the behavioral context of vocalizations in the natural environment. We provide evidence of underwater vocalizations in foraging female AFS in a context of foraging at sea. AFS produced stereotyped calls made of low‐frequency pulses produced in series, exclusively during foraging dives. We hypothesized that these acoustic pulse series could be used as an acoustic lure to confuse or attract fish prey, however, a larger sample size is needed to study the adaptive significance of these underwater vocalizations.