Inferring prey size variation from mandible acceleration in northern elephant seals
Inferring prey size variation from mandible acceleration in northern elephant seals
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DOI：
10.1111/mms.12571
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发表时间：
2019-07-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Takahashi, Akinori
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Adachi, Taiki;Huckstadt, Luis A.;Takahashi, Akinori
猎物的大小是捕食者的一个重要因素，因为它影响猎物的质量（能量含量），因此总的能量增益。然而，它仍然具有挑战性，以获得有关猎物的大小从自由放养的海洋食肉动物的信息。在这里，我们开发了一种方法，估计猎物的大小使用下颌骨加速度圈养北方象海豹，然后将其应用到34自由放养的海豹。在圈养海豹中，进食相关的加速度信号的数量与猎物大小类别（1 000米）呈正相关，这表明海豹主要在更深的深度捕食较小的猎物（可能15厘米）。这些结果表明，海豹可能会通过瞄准更大的猎物来补偿更深潜水的更高能量成本。虽然我们的研究有实际的局限性（例如，校准捕获条件下的猎物大小），我们的方法允许同时推断猎物的大小和觅食行为，是潜在的有用的研究捕食者如何调整自己的行为，以应对觅食环境的变化。
Prey size is an important factor for predators as it affects prey quality (energy content) and hence total energy gain. However, it remains challenging to obtain information about prey size from free-ranging marine predators. Here, we developed a method that estimates prey size using mandible acceleration in captive northern elephant seals and then applied it to 34 free-ranging seals. In captive seals, the number of feeding-related acceleration signals were positively related to prey size category (1,000 m), suggesting that seals foraged mainly on smaller prey (possibly 15 cm) at deeper depths. These results suggest that seals might compensate for higher energetic costs of deeper-diving by targeting larger prey. Although our study has practical limitations (e.g., calibrating prey size in captive conditions), our method allows concurrent inference of prey size and foraging behavior, being potentially useful to investigate how predators adjust their behavior in response to the changes in the foraging environment.