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Factors affecting stroking patterns and body angle in diving Weddell seals under natural conditions
1 National Institute of Polar Research, 1-9-10 Kaga, Itabashi, Tokyo
173-8515, Japan
2 Graduate University for Advanced Studies, 1-9-10 Kaga, Itabashi, Tokyo
173-8515, Japan
3 Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota,
100 Ecology, St Paul, Minnesota 55455 USA
Present address: National Marine Mammal Laboratory/Alaska Fisheries Science
Center, NOAA, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, Washington 98115, USA
* Author for correspondence (e-mail: ksato{at}nipr.ac.jp)
Accepted 27 January 2003
Aquatic animals use a variety of strategies to reduce the energetic cost of locomotion. Efficient locomotion is particularly important for breath-holding divers because high levels of exercise may quickly deplete oxygen reserves, leading to the termination of a dive. We investigated the swimming behavior of eight adult Weddell seals, which are proficient divers, in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A newly developed data logger was attached to free-ranging females at their own breeding sites to record swimming speed, depth, two-dimensional accelerations (stroke frequency and body angle) and temperature. All seals conducted multiple deep dives (the mean dive depth range for each animal was 223.3±66.5–297.9±164.7 m). Prolonged gliding while descending was observed with thinner females (N=5 seals). But the fatter females (N=3 seals) exhibited only swim-and-glide swimming, characterized by intermittent stroking and fluctuating swim speed, throughout their descent and ascent. The body angles of four of the seals were restricted to less than 30° by the location of breathing holes in the ice and the slope of local bathymetric features. Of these four, the three fatter seals adopted the stroke-and-glide method while the other thinner seal descended with prolonged periods of gliding. Prolonged gliding seems to be a more efficient method for locomotion because the surface time between dives of gliding seals was significantly less than that of stroking animals, despite their same stroke frequencies.
Key words: acceleration data logger, body angle, stroke frequency, prolonged glide, stroke-and-glide, Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii.
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