The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal
The cost of pregnancy is hard to study in marine mammals, particularly in species that undergo pregnancy while diving continuously at sea such as elephant seals (genus Mirounga). We analysed the diving behaviour of confirmed pregnant and non-pregnant northern elephant seals (M. angustirostris, n = 1...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5830665 2023-05-15T16:05:15+02:00 The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal Hückstädt, Luis A. Holser, Rachel R. Tift, Michael S. Costa, Daniel P. 2018-02 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830665/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29445044 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830665/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29445044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722 © 2018 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Animal Behaviour Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722 2019-02-03T01:17:51Z The cost of pregnancy is hard to study in marine mammals, particularly in species that undergo pregnancy while diving continuously at sea such as elephant seals (genus Mirounga). We analysed the diving behaviour of confirmed pregnant and non-pregnant northern elephant seals (M. angustirostris, n = 172) and showed that after an initial continuous increase in dive duration, dives of pregnant females become shorter after week 17. The reasons for this reduction in dive duration remain unknown, but we hypothesize that increased fetal demand for oxygen could be the cause. Our findings reveal an opportunity to explore the use of biologging data to investigate pregnancy status of free-ranging marine mammals and factors that could affect pregnancy success. Text Elephant Seal Elephant Seals PubMed Central (PMC) Biology Letters 14 2 20170722 |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Behaviour |
spellingShingle |
Animal Behaviour Hückstädt, Luis A. Holser, Rachel R. Tift, Michael S. Costa, Daniel P. The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
topic_facet |
Animal Behaviour |
description |
The cost of pregnancy is hard to study in marine mammals, particularly in species that undergo pregnancy while diving continuously at sea such as elephant seals (genus Mirounga). We analysed the diving behaviour of confirmed pregnant and non-pregnant northern elephant seals (M. angustirostris, n = 172) and showed that after an initial continuous increase in dive duration, dives of pregnant females become shorter after week 17. The reasons for this reduction in dive duration remain unknown, but we hypothesize that increased fetal demand for oxygen could be the cause. Our findings reveal an opportunity to explore the use of biologging data to investigate pregnancy status of free-ranging marine mammals and factors that could affect pregnancy success. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hückstädt, Luis A. Holser, Rachel R. Tift, Michael S. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_facet |
Hückstädt, Luis A. Holser, Rachel R. Tift, Michael S. Costa, Daniel P. |
author_sort |
Hückstädt, Luis A. |
title |
The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
title_short |
The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
title_full |
The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
title_fullStr |
The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
title_full_unstemmed |
The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
title_sort |
extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830665/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29445044 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722 |
genre |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5830665/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29445044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722 |
op_rights |
© 2018 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
20170722 |
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1766401155975348224 |