Adjustment of diving behaviour with prey encounters and body condition in a deep diving predator: the Southern Elephant Seal

Abstract

<p>Dive characteristics obtained for six post-breeding females Southern Elephant Seals (SES). SES are identified with their ID. Each row is a dive and each column is a variable associated to this dive:</p> <p>diveCount: number of the dive for the individual considered</p> <p>startTime: time at the beginning of the dive</p> <p>diveDuration: dive duration (s)</p> <p>maxDepth: maximum depth reaching (m)</p> <p>surfaceTimeAFTER: time spent at the surface after the dive (s)</p> <p>descentDuration: descent phase duration (s)</p> <p>bottomDuration: bottom phase duration (s)</p> <p>ascentDuration: ascent phase duration (s)</p> <p>isDrift: 1 drift dive - 0 non-drift dive</p> <p>captureCount: number of capture during the whole dive</p> <p>captureBottomCOUNT: number of capture during the bottom phase</p> <p>descentAngle: average body angle of the animal during the descent phase (°)</p> <p>ascentAngle: average body angle of the animal during the ascent phase (°)</p> <p>bodyDensity: body density of the animal (kg.m^-3)</p> <p>descentEffort: average swimming effort of the animal during the descent phase (m.s^-3)</p> <p>bottomEffort: average swimming effort of the animal during the bottom phase (m.s^-3)</p> <p>ascentEffort: average swimming effort of the animal during the ascent phase (m.s^-3)</p> <p>descentEffortTOT: sum of the swimming effort of the animal during the descent phase (m.s^-2)</p> <p>bottomEffortTOT: sum of the swimming effort of the animal during the bottom phase (m.s^-2)</p> <p>ascentEffortTOT: sum of the swimming effort of the animal during the ascent phase (m.s^-2)</p> <p>captureDescentCOUNT: number of capture during the descent phase</p> <p>captureAscentCOUNT:number of capture during the ascent phase</p> <p>surfaceTimeBEFORE: time spent at the surface before the dive (s)</p> <p>ID: user name of the animal</p> <p> </p> <p> </p