Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals
Choices made by foraging animals should maximize energy intake, although 'irrational' short-term behaviours are common. One explanation for this is that environmental variation may lead to the evolution of behaviours that benefit individual reproductive output, but only over long timescale...
Published in: | Animal Behaviour |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Academic Press Ltd
2004
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/32074 |
id |
ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:32074 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:32074 2023-05-15T16:05:39+02:00 Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals Bradshaw, CJA Hindell, MA Sumner, MD Michael, KJ 2004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/32074 en eng Academic Press Ltd http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 Bradshaw, CJA and Hindell, MA and Sumner, MD and Michael, KJ, Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals, Animal Behaviour, 68 pp. 1349-1360. ISSN 0003-3472 (2004) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/32074 Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography Refereed Article PeerReviewed 2004 ftunivtasecite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 2019-12-13T21:11:31Z Choices made by foraging animals should maximize energy intake, although 'irrational' short-term behaviours are common. One explanation for this is that environmental variation may lead to the evolution of behaviours that benefit individual reproductive output, but only over long timescales. Long-term (multiyear) fidelity to foraging regions in extremely variable environments may confer ecological benefits to individuals, such as familiarity with resources, even when energy gain is not consistently high in all years. We examined the annual foraging ranges (sometimes exceeding 3.5 million km 2) of female southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, over 4 years and found that individuals used preferred regions year after year. We hypothesized that the degree of fidelity in a particular year was related to the foraging success (as measured by mass gain) in the previous year; however, there was no significant relation between the two. Despite this high variation in annual foraging success, the regions revisited in consecutive years provided higher potential food production as measured by higher variance in sea surface temperatures over two decades (a surrogate measure of ocean productivity). The evolution of long-term fidelity assisted by simple navigational rules may confer energetic advantages over an individual's lifetime and explain the existence of seemingly nonadaptive short-term behaviours. 2004 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seals eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) Animal Behaviour 68 6 1349 1360 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtasecite |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography Bradshaw, CJA Hindell, MA Sumner, MD Michael, KJ Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
topic_facet |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography |
description |
Choices made by foraging animals should maximize energy intake, although 'irrational' short-term behaviours are common. One explanation for this is that environmental variation may lead to the evolution of behaviours that benefit individual reproductive output, but only over long timescales. Long-term (multiyear) fidelity to foraging regions in extremely variable environments may confer ecological benefits to individuals, such as familiarity with resources, even when energy gain is not consistently high in all years. We examined the annual foraging ranges (sometimes exceeding 3.5 million km 2) of female southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, over 4 years and found that individuals used preferred regions year after year. We hypothesized that the degree of fidelity in a particular year was related to the foraging success (as measured by mass gain) in the previous year; however, there was no significant relation between the two. Despite this high variation in annual foraging success, the regions revisited in consecutive years provided higher potential food production as measured by higher variance in sea surface temperatures over two decades (a surrogate measure of ocean productivity). The evolution of long-term fidelity assisted by simple navigational rules may confer energetic advantages over an individual's lifetime and explain the existence of seemingly nonadaptive short-term behaviours. 2004 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bradshaw, CJA Hindell, MA Sumner, MD Michael, KJ |
author_facet |
Bradshaw, CJA Hindell, MA Sumner, MD Michael, KJ |
author_sort |
Bradshaw, CJA |
title |
Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
title_short |
Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
title_full |
Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
title_fullStr |
Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
title_full_unstemmed |
Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
title_sort |
loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals |
publisher |
Academic Press Ltd |
publishDate |
2004 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/32074 |
genre |
Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seals |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seals |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 Bradshaw, CJA and Hindell, MA and Sumner, MD and Michael, KJ, Loyalty pays: potential life history consequences of fidelity to marine foraging regions by southern elephant seals, Animal Behaviour, 68 pp. 1349-1360. ISSN 0003-3472 (2004) [Refereed Article] http://ecite.utas.edu.au/32074 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.013 |
container_title |
Animal Behaviour |
container_volume |
68 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
1349 |
op_container_end_page |
1360 |
_version_ |
1766401548192055296 |