Dives profiles of three little penguins illustrating synchronous diving behaviour.

<p>Representative example of synchronous dives by three little penguins during a portion of their foraging trips.</p

Different types of associations found in instrumented little penguins.

<p>The proportion of time spent travelling while associated is the proportion of time an individual spent travelling at the surface only relative to its foraging trip duration. The proportion of time spent diving while associated is the time an individual spent diving asynchronously relative to its foraging trip duration. Median values are given with range in parentheses.</p

Diving parameters of instrumented little penguins pairs that associated while synchronously diving.

<p>The number of dives is the total dives synchronously performed by a pair. The surface distance is the distance between two individuals at the time of association. Median values are given with range in parentheses.</p

Summary of individuals observed to associate and total number of individuals foraging at the time of instrumentation.

<p>The total number of adults foraging was calculated from the number of breeding pairs raising chicks in the colony, see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0105065#s2" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a> for more details.</p

Seasonal effects on foraging effort within foraging cycle.

<p>Differences in the proportion of time spent diving during the whole foraging cycle (foraging trip duration+haul-out duration) throughout the second half of the lactation period for female Australian fur seals provisioning young at Kanowna Island, Bass Strait, Australia. (values taken from the coefficient estimates and corresponding standard errors of the LME model. see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0079484#pone-0079484-t003" target="_blank">Table 3</a> for statistical results).</p

Foraging trips of three little penguins tracked with GPS.

<p>Example of GPS tracks from three foraging adult little penguins at the London Bridge breeding colony (black dot). The rectangle represents dive events location showed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0105065#pone-0105065-g002" target="_blank">Figure 2</a>.</p

Foraging effort response to number of days into foraging trip.

<p>The predicted response of A) proportion of time diving (%), B) mean dive duration (s), C) mean post-dive duration (s) and D) vertical distance covered (m·h⁻¹) in female Australian fur seals to the number of days into a foraging trip. Blue bands represent the 95% confidence intervals around the predicted response. (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0079484#pone-0079484-t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a> for statistical results).</p

Seasonal effects on haul-out durations.

<p>Differences in the duration of haul-out periods throughout the second half of the lactation period for female Australian fur seals provisioning young at Kanowna Island, Bass Strait, Australia. (values taken from the coefficient estimates and corresponding standard errors of the LME model. see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0079484#pone-0079484-t003" target="_blank">Table 3</a> for statistical results).</p

Summary results of the four Generalised Additive Mixed Effects Models, the include individual smoothers for short and long foraging trips, used to assess the temporal trends in the foraging effort of female Australian fur seals provisioning young at Kanowna Island, Bass Strait, Australia.

<p>Est: estimated parametric coefficient. SE: estimated standard error of parametric coefficient.</p><p>Note: Only results of the number of days into the foraging trip part of the analysis shown as the shape of response for other timescales did not vary significantly from those presented using models without individual smoothing splines for short and long foraging trips.</p

Summary results of models assessing the response of foraging trip duration (h) to the corresponding proportion of time spent diving and time of year, the response of the proportion of time spent diving during a foraging cycle to the time of year and the response of haul-out duration (h) to the corresponding foraging trip duration and time of year in female Australian fur seals provisioning young at Kanowna Island, Bass Strait, Australia.

<p>Est: estimated parametric coefficient. SE: estimated standard error of parametric coefficient.</p