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55 results for “Elephant Seals”
Data from: Dive-by-dive variation in the diving respiratory air volume of southern elephant seals (<em>Mirounga leonina</em>)
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Macquarie Island southern elephant seal capture-mark-recapture data
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Birth timing after the long feeding migration in northern elephant seals
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Data for: Molt timing and duration of northern elephant seals
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Long-term consistency of dispersal between two colonies of northern elephant seals
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Complete tag loss in capture-recapture studies affects abundance estimates: an elephant seal case study
<p>1. In capture-recapture studies, recycled individuals occur when individuals lose all of their tags and are recaptured as though they were new individuals. Typically, the effect of these recycled individuals is assumed negligible.</p> <p>2. Through a simulation-based study of double tagging experiments, we examined the effect of recycled individuals on parameter estimates in the Jolly-Seber model with tag loss (Cowen & Schwarz, 2006). We validated the simulation framework using long-term census data of elephant seals.</p> <p>3. Including recycled individuals did not affect estimates of capture, survival, and tag-retention probabilities. However, with low tag-retention rates, high capture rates, and high survival rates, recycled individuals produced over estimates of population size. For the elephant seal case study, we found population size estimates to be between 8 and 53% larger when recycled individuals were ignored.</p> <p>4. Ignoring the effects of recycled individuals can cause large biases in population size estimates. These results are particularly noticeable in longer studies.</p>
Data from: Local weather and body condition influence habitat use and movements on land of molting female southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina)
Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) are known to move and aggregate while moulting, but little is known about their behaviour on land during this time. In this study, 60 adult females were monitored (23 with GPS tags) during four moulting seasons, between 2012 and 2016 at Kerguelen Archipelago, Indian Ocean. Population surveys were recorded each year (N = 230 daily counts) and habitat use was analysed in relation to the stage of the moult and local weather. Based on stage of moult, habitat use and movements on land, we classified the moult of elephant seals into three phases: 1) a "search phase" at the initial stage of moult when grass and wallow habitats were used and characterised by greater mean distances travelled on land per day compared with the two other phases, 2) a "resident phase": during initial and mid-stage of moult when animals were found in grass and wallow habitats but with less distance moved on land, and 3) a "termination phase" at the final stage of moult where grass and beach habitats were occupied with no change in distances. Windchill and solar radiation influenced individual distances moved per day (mean 590 ± 237.0 m) at the mid and final stage of moult, such that animals travelled greater distances on days of low windchill or high solar radiation. Individual variation in distance moved and relative habitat use were also linked to body mass index (BMI) at arrival on the colony, as females with higher BMI moved less and preferred beach habitat. Moreover, the individual rate of moult increased with the use of wallows. Aggregation rate tended to be negatively correlated with distances moved. We therefore suggest that individuals face an energetic trade-off while moulting, balancing energy expenditure between movement and thermoregulation.
Data from: Climate change and the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) population in Baja California, Mexico
The Earth′s climate is warming, especially in the mid- and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) breeds and haul-outs on islands and the mainland of Baja California, Mexico, and California, U.S.A. At the beginning of the 21st century, numbers of elephant seals in California are increasing, but the status of Baja California populations is unknown, and some data suggest they may be decreasing. We hypothesize that the elephant seal population of Baja California is experiencing a decline because the animals are not migrating as far south due to warming sea and air temperatures. Here we assessed population trends of the Baja California population, and climate change in the region. The numbers of northern elephant seals in Baja California colonies have been decreasing since the 1990s, and both the surface waters off Baja California and the local air temperatures have warmed during the last three decades. We propose that declining population sizes may be attributable to decreased migration towards the southern portions of the range in response to the observed temperature increases. Further research is needed to confirm our hypothesis; however, if true, it would imply that elephant seal colonies of Baja California and California are not demographically isolated which would pose challenges to environmental and management policies between Mexico and the United States.
Data from: Marine foraging ecology influences mercury bioaccumulation in deep-diving northern elephant seals
Mercury contamination of oceans is prevalent worldwide and methylmercury concentrations in the mesopelagic zone (200–1000 m) are increasing more rapidly than in surface waters. Yet mercury bioaccumulation in mesopelagic predators has been understudied. Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) biannually travel thousands of kilometres to forage within coastal and open-ocean regions of the northeast Pacific Ocean. We coupled satellite telemetry, diving behaviour and stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) from 77 adult females, and showed that variability among individuals in foraging location, diving depth and δ13C values were correlated with mercury concentrations in blood and muscle. We identified three clusters of foraging strategies, and these resulted in substantially different mercury concentrations: (i) deeper-diving and offshore-foraging seals had the greatest mercury concentrations, (ii) shallower-diving and offshore-foraging seals had intermediate levels, and (iii) coastal and more northerly foraging seals had the lowest mercury concentrations. Additionally, mercury concentrations were lower at the end of the seven-month-long foraging trip (n = 31) than after the two-month- long post-breeding trip (n = 46). Our results indicate that foraging behaviour influences mercury exposure and mesopelagic predators foraging in the northeast Pacific Ocean may be at high risk for mercury bioaccumulation.
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 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.
On following pages: 3. Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris); 4. Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina). in Phocidae
On following pages: 3. Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris); 4. Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina).
Data from: Reproductive skipping as an optimal life history strategy in the southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina
Intermittent breeding by which organisms skip some current reproductive opportunities in order to enhance future reproductive success is a common life history tradeoff among long-lived, iteroparous species. The southern elephant seal Mirounga leonina engages in intermediate breeding when body condition is low. While it is anticipated that this strategy may increase the lifetime reproductive output of this species, the conditions under which reproductive skipping are predicted to occur are not clear. Here I develop a dynamic state variable model based on published data that examines when southern elephant seals are predicted to optimally skip reproduction in order to maximize lifetime reproductive output as a function of current body mass, maternal age, and survivorship. I demonstrate that the optimal reproductive strategy for this species can include reproductive skipping, and that the conditions where this is optimal depend on patterns of mass-dependent adult female survival. I further show that intermittent breeding can increase lifetime reproductive output, and that the magnitude of this benefit increases with the ability of individual animals to replenish depleted body mass through foraging. Finally, I show that when the environment is variable and foraging is reduced in bad years, the benefit of adopting an optimal strategy that includes reproductive skipping increases asymptotically with the frequency of bad years. These results highlight the importance of characterizing the pattern of adult survival in this species, as well as the need to identify other factors that may influence the prevalence and benefits of reproductive skipping.
Data from: Climate change and the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) population in Baja California, Mexico
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Data from: Reproductive skipping as an optimal life history strategy in the southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina
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Data from: Local weather and body condition influence habitat use and movements on land of molting female southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina)
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Data from: Phenotypic selection and covariation in the life‐history traits of elephant seals: heavier offspring gain a double selective advantage
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Data from: The extra burden of motherhood: reduced dive duration associated with pregnancy status in a deep-diving mammal, the northern elephant seal
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Data from: Population differentiation in the context of Holocene climate change for a migratory marine species, the southern elephant seal
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Data from: Body condition influences ontogeny of foraging behavior in juvenile southern elephant seals
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Data from: Marine foraging ecology influences mercury bioaccumulation in deep-diving northern elephant seals
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.