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Pitching a new angle on elephant seal dive patterns

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Abstract

Elephant seals are one of the most proficient diving mammals in the world and are also one of the most studied. However, their long periods at sea and pelagic habits make research into their foraging ecology particularly challenging. Most current understanding comes from the use of time-depth recorders (TDRs). We used TDRs that additionally recorded body pitch and roll on four juvenile southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) foraging over the Patagonian Shelf to describe their diving behaviour and compared them with those of adults, using standard descriptions of elephant seal dive profile types provided by the literature. Over 280 days of diving data showed that dive types were similar to those of adults (types: A, B, C, D, Eb and Ef) but that dive types A and C differed slightly, probably because our animals were constrained by bottom topography. Steep dive and return-to-surface angles in all dive types except type B indicate that animals generally attempt to maximize vertical displacement. Horizontal displacement was much greater in type B dives, which indicates a travelling function. Pitching and rolling behaviour lends support to the functions ascribed to the dive types already described for adult elephant seals, although type Eb dives are unusual in that the animals appear to be taking prey by up-ending in the benthos.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants from Wildlife Conservation Society and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas de la República Argentina. We thank the National Geographic Society for financial support allowing us to work on elephant seal data. We thank M. Uhart for assistance during the anaesthesia process in the field and R. Vera and J. Rua for logistical support. We also thank the Organismo Provincial de Turismo for the permits to work in Península Valdés.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONICET), Blvd. Brown 2915, U9120ACF, Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina

    Juan Emilio Sala, Flavio Quintana, Jorge Dignani, Mirtha N. Lewis & Claudio Campagna

  2. Wildlife Conservation Society, Amenabar 1595, C1426AKC, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Flavio Quintana & Claudio Campagna

  3. Department of Pure and Applied Ecology, Institute of Environmental Sustainability, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, Wales, UK

    Rory P. Wilson

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  1. Juan Emilio Sala
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  2. Flavio Quintana
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  3. Rory P. Wilson
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  4. Jorge Dignani
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  5. Mirtha N. Lewis
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  6. Claudio Campagna
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Correspondence to Juan Emilio Sala.

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Sala, J.E., Quintana, F., Wilson, R.P. et al. Pitching a new angle on elephant seal dive patterns. Polar Biol 34, 1197–1209 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-011-0981-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-011-0981-6

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