Frigate birds track atmospheric conditions over months-long transoceanic flights

International audienceUnderstanding how animals respond to atmospheric conditions across space is critical for understanding the evolution of flight strategies and long-distance migrations. We studied the three-dimensional movements and energetics of great frigate birds (Fregata minor) and showed that they can stay aloft for months during transoceanic flights. To do this, birds track the edge of the doldrums to take advantage of favorable winds and strong convection. Locally, they use a roller-coaster flight, relying on thermals and wind to soar within a 50- to 600-meter altitude band under cumulus clouds and then glide over kilometers at low energy costs. To deal with the local scarcity of clouds and gain longer gliding distances, birds regularly soar inside cumulus clouds to use their strong updraft, and they can reach altitudes of 4000 meters, where freezing conditions occur

Flipper strokes can predict energy expenditure and locomotion costs in free-ranging northern and Antarctic fur seals

Acknowledgements We thank Alistair Baylis, Rachel Orben, Michelle Barbieri, Nory El Ksabi, Malcolm O’Toole and Jade Vacquie-Garcia for their help in collecting the data. We are also thankful to the Institut Paul-Emile Victor for their logistic and financial support to the Kerguelen field season, and to NPRB and NSERC for their contribution in funding this project.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Reproductive success is energetically linked to foraging efficiency in Antarctic fur seals

The efficiency with which individuals extract energy from their environment defines their survival and reproductive success, and thus their selective contribution to the population. Individuals that forage more efficiently (i.e., when energy gained exceeds energy expended) are likely to be more successful at raising viable offspring than individuals that forage less efficiently. Our goal was to test this prediction in large long-lived mammals under free-ranging conditions. To do so, we equipped 20 lactating Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) breeding on Kerguelen Island in the Southern Ocean with tags that recorded GPS locations, depth and tri-axial acceleration to determine at-sea behaviours and detailed time-activity budgets during their foraging trips. We also simultaneously measured energy spent at sea using the doubly-labeled water (DLW) method, and estimated the energy acquired while foraging from 1) type and energy content of prey species present in scat remains, and 2) numbers of prey capture attempts determined from head acceleration. Finally, we followed the growth of 36 pups from birth until weaning (of which 20 were the offspring of our 20 tracked mothers), and used the relative differences in body mass of pups at weaning as an index of first year survival and thus the reproductive success of their mothers. Our results show that females with greater foraging efficiencies produced relatively bigger pups at weaning. These mothers achieved greater foraging efficiency by extracting more energy per minute of diving rather than by reducing energy expenditure. This strategy also resulted in the females spending less time diving and less time overall at sea, which allowed them to deliver higher quality milk to their pups, or allowed their pups to suckle more frequently, or both. The linkage we demonstrate between reproductive success and the quality of individuals as foragers provides an individual-based quantitative framework to investigate how changes in the availability and accessibility of prey can affect fitness of animals

Trade-offs between foraging efficiency and pup feeding rate of lactating northern fur seals in a declining population

Foraging strategies and their resulting efficiency (energy gain to cost ratio) affect animals’ survival and reproductive success and can be linked to population dynamics. However, they have rarely been studied quantitatively in free-ranging animals. We investigated foraging strategies and efficiencies of wild northern fur seals Callorhinus ursinus during their breeding season to understand potential links to the observed population decline in the Bering Sea. We equipped 20 lactating females with biologgers to determine at-sea foraging behaviours. We measured energy expenditure while foraging using the doubly-labelled water method, and energy gained using (1) the types and energy densities of prey consumed, and (2) the number of prey capture attempts (from acceleration data). Our results show that seals employed 2 foraging strategies: one group (40%) fed mostly in oceanic waters on small, high energy-density prey, while the other (60%) stayed over the shallow continental shelf feeding mostly on larger, lower quality fish. Females foraging in oceanic waters captured 3 times more prey, and had double the foraging efficiencies of females that foraged on-shelf in neritic waters. However, neritic seals made comparatively shorter trips, and likely fed their pups ~20 to 25% more frequently. The presence of these strategies which either favor foraging efficiency (energy) or frequency of nursing (time) might be maintained in the population because they have similar net fitness outcomes. However, neither strategy appears to simultaneously maximize time and energy allocated to nursing, with potential impacts on the survival of pups during their first year at sea

Foraging strategies and efficiencies of lactating northern and Antarctic fur seals : implications for reproductive success.

Efficient extraction of energy from the environment is key to the survival and reproductive success of wild animals. Understanding the ratio of energy gained to energy spent of different foraging strategies (i.e., foraging efficiency) can shed light on how animals cope with environmental changes and how it affects population trajectories. I investigated how female foraging strategies during the breeding season impact the foraging efficiencies and reproductive successes of two fur seal species—one declining (NFS–northern fur seals, St. Paul Island, Alaska) and one increasing (AFS–Antarctic fur seals, Kerguelen Island, Southern Ocean). I also sought to develop new accelerometry-based methods to easily determine fine-scale energy expenditure at sea (VeDBA and flipper stroke metrics). Twenty lactating females of each species were captured and equipped with biologging tags to record GPS locations, depth and tri-axial acceleration. Energy expenditure for each foraging trip was measured using the doubly-labeled water method, and energy gained while foraging was determined from 1) diet composition (scat hard-parts and DNA) and blood stable isotope ratios; and 2) numbers of prey capture attempts (from head acceleration). Maternal investment in pups was determined from pup growth rates or from energy content of milk samples. Results showed acceleration metrics were only accurate at predicting energy expended by fur seals when time-activity budgets were taken into account (i.e., time spent performing different types of activity). Foraging strategies of AFS females resulted in efficiencies of ~3.4, with more efficient females producing bigger pups at weaning that had greater chances of survival. NFS females employed two foraging strategies with very different efficiencies (~1.4 vs ~3.0) that were associated with different foraging habitats and diet qualities. However, NFS with the more efficient strategy (3.0) undertook longer foraging trips than the other NFS (1.4) or AFS (3.4), and thus fed their pups ~20% less frequently. As a consequence, the declining NFS (unlike the increasing AFS) had to compromise between the rate of energy acquisition and the pup feeding frequency. Such reductions in energy intake and time allocated to nursing pups can ultimately lower juvenile survival, and may explain the population decline of NFS in Alaska.Science, Faculty ofZoology, Department ofGraduat

Antarctic fur seal data

Data was collected on Antarctic fur seal females during the breeding season on Kerguelen Island, Southern Ocean on The Pointe Suzanne colony from a Daily Diary tag from Wildlife Computers. Column headings include "Date", "Time", "Depth", "Temperature", "aX", "aY", "aZ", "Light", "Velocity", "WetDry", "WetDrytxt". aX, Y, Z refer to the acceleration recorded on the 3 body axes

Animal-borne telemetry: An integral component of the ocean observing toolkit

Animal telemetry is a powerful tool for observing marine animals and the physical environments that they inhabit, from coastal and continental shelf ecosystems to polar seas and open oceans. Satellite-linked biologgers and networks of acoustic receivers allow animals to be reliably monitored over scales of tens of meters to thousands of kilometers, giving insight into their habitat use, home range size, the phenology of migratory patterns and the biotic and abiotic factors that drive their distributions. Furthermore, physical environmental variables can be collected using animals as autonomous sampling platforms, increasing spatial and temporal coverage of global oceanographic observation systems. The use of animal telemetry, therefore, has the capacity to provide measures from a suite of essential ocean variables (EOVs) for improved monitoring of Earth's oceans. Here we outline the design features of animal telemetry systems, describe current applications and their benefits and challenges, and discuss future directions. We describe new analytical techniques that improve our ability to not only quantify animal movements but to also provide a powerful framework for comparative studies across taxa. We discuss the application of animal telemetry and its capacity to collect biotic and abiotic data, how the data collected can be incorporated into ocean observing systems, and the role these data can play in improved ocean management

Diet quality and season affect physiology and energetic priorities of captive Steller sea lions during and after periods of nutritional stress

The ability of animals to contend with unpredictable seasonal shifts in quality and quantity of prey has implications for the conservation of wildlife. Steller sea lions(Eumetopias jubatus) were subjected to different quantities and qualities of food to determine what physiological and endocrine responses would occur and whether they differed between season (summer and winter) or diet (high-lipid Pacific herring Clupeapallasi vs. low-lipid Walleye Pollock Theragra chalcogramma). Eight females were divided among two groups. One (Group H) were fed herring for 28 days (baseline), then received a reduced caloric intake for a subsequent 28 days (restriction) to induce a 15%loss of body mass. The second (Group P) were also fed herring during the baseline followed by a reduced isocaloric diet of pollock during the restriction. Both groups subsequently returned to their baseline intake of herring for a 28-day controlled re-feeding. The two groups of sea lions lost identical mass during restrictions independent of species eaten, but did differ in the type of internal energy reserve (protein vs. lipids) they predominantly used. Group H lost significantly more lipids and less lean mass than Group P in both seasons. In summer, Group H also increased activity levels and decreased thermoregulation capacity to optimize energy allocation. No such changes were observed for Group P whose capacity to adjust to the reduced caloric intake seemed to have been blocked by the pollock diet. During winter, the sea lions spared energy allocated to activity (especially Group H) and preserved thermoregulation capacity. Changes in body mass was negatively related to free cortisol and positively related to IGF-1 in winter, but only IGF-1 was related to changes in mass in summer when lean mass regulation seemed more important. Levels of IGF-1 were associated with changes in protein metabolism in both seasons for both groups, but changes in body condition were never explained by the measured metabolites or hormones. The capacity to compensate for mass loss was seasonally dependent with sea lions displaying compensatory growth (by restoring lipid stores) in winter but not in summer. Summer appears to be a more difficult season for sea lions to recover from mild nutritional stress. These physiological findings can be used to refine bioenergetic models needed for the conservation of Steller sea lion populations.Science, Faculty ofZoology, Department ofGraduat

Northern fur seals data

Data was collected on northern fur seal females during the breeding season on St Paul island, Bering Sea, Alaska from a daily Diary tag from Wildlife Computers. Column headings include "Date", "Time","Depth", "External Temperature", "int mX", "int mY", "int mZ", "int aX", "int aY", "int aZ", "Light Level", "Velocity", "Wet/Dry", "Wet/Dry", "Hour", "Battery Voltage", "Protocol". int mX, Y, Z refer to magnetic field recorded on the 3 body axes, and int aX, Y, Z to the acceleration recorded on the same axes

Data from: Bottom time does not always predict prey encounter rate in Antarctic fur seals

Optimal foraging models applied to breath-holding divers predict that diving predators should optimize the time spent foraging at the bottom of dives depending on prey encounter rate, distance to prey patch (depth) and physiological constraints. We tested this hypothesis on a free-ranging diving marine predator, the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella, equipped with accelerometers or Hall sensors (n = 11) that recorded mouth-opening events, a proxy for prey capture attempts and thus feeding events. Over the 5896 dives analysed (>15 m depth), the mean number of mouth-opening events per dive was 1·21 ± 1·69 (mean ± SD). Overall, 82% of mouth-openings occurred at the bottom of dives. As predicted, fur seals increased their inferred foraging time at the bottom of dives with increasing patch distance (depth), irrespective of the number of mouth-openings. For dives shallower than 55 m, the mean bottom duration of dives without mouth-openings was shorter than for dives with mouth-opening events. However, this difference was only due to the occurrence of V-shaped dives with short bottom durations (0 or 1 s). When removing those V-shaped dives, bottom duration was not related to the presence of mouth-openings anymore. Thus, the decision to abandon foraging is likely related to other information about prey availability than prey capture attempts (i.e. sensory cues) that seals collect during the descent phase. We did not observe V-shaped dives for dives deeper than 55 m, threshold beyond which the mean dive duration exceeded the apparent aerobic dive limit. For dives deeper than 55 m, seals kept on foraging at bottom irrespective of the number of mouth-openings performed. Most dives occurred at shallower depths (30–55 m) than the 60 m depth of highest foraging efficiency (i.e. of greatest number of mouth-opening events per dive). This is likely related to physiological constraints during deeper dives. We suggest that foraging decisions are more complex than predicted by current theory and highlight the importance of the information collected by the predator during the descent as well as its physiological constraints. Ultimately, this will help establishing reliable predictive foraging models for marine predators based on diving patterns only