scholarly journals Diving behaviour of Cuvier's beaked whales ( Ziphius cavirostris ) off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 181728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne M. Shearer ◽  
Nicola J. Quick ◽  
William R. Cioffi ◽  
Robin W. Baird ◽  
Daniel L. Webster ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Median Duration ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Dive Depth ◽  
Diving Behaviour ◽  
Deep Diving ◽  
Cape Hatteras ◽  
Extended Surface ◽  
Beaked Whales ◽  
Behaviour Data

Cuvier's beaked whales exhibit exceptionally long and deep foraging dives. The species is little studied due to their deep-water, offshore distribution and limited time spent at the surface. We used LIMPET satellite tags to study the diving behaviour of Cuvier's beaked whales off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina from 2014 to 2016. We deployed 11 tags, recording 3242 h of behaviour data, encompassing 5926 dives. Dive types were highly bimodal; deep dives (greater than 800 m, n = 1408) had a median depth of 1456 m and median duration of 58.9 min; shallow dives (50–800 m, n = 4518) were to median depths of 280 m with a median duration of 18.7 min. Most surface intervals were very short (median 2.2 min), but all animals occasionally performed extended surface intervals. We found no diel differences in dive depth or the percentage of time spent deep diving, but whales spent significantly more time near the surface at night. Other populations of this species exhibit similar dive patterns, but with regional differences in depth, duration and inter-dive intervals. Satellite-linked tags allow for the collection of long periods of dive records, including the occurrence of anomalous behaviours, bringing new insights into the lives of these deep divers.

Diving behaviour of lactating southern sea lions (Otaria flavescens) in Patagonia

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 1975-1982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo Werner ◽  
Claudio Campagna
Keyword(s):  
Median Duration ◽  
Dive Depth ◽  
Dive Duration ◽  
Diving Behaviour ◽  
Diel Variation ◽  
Otaria Flavescens ◽  
Sea Lions ◽  
Aerobic Dive Limit

The diving behaviour of six lactating female southern sea lions (Otaria flavescens) was recorded during 52.4 animal-days at sea. Information was obtained from 18 057 dives. Females spent 52.7 ± 6.2% of the time at sea diving. Median and maximum dive depths ranged from 19 to 62 and from 97 to 175 m, respectively. Dives were short, with median and maximum durations ranging from 2.1 to 3.2 and from 4.4 to 7.7 min, respectively. Dives deeper than 10 m represented 56 – 89% of total dives and involved 93 – 97% of total diving time. Mean dive depth and duration of dives greater than 10 m were 61 m and 3 min, respectively. Most of these dives (69%) had a flat-bottomed U-shaped profile, bottom time constituting about half of the dive duration. Shallow dives, with a modal depth of 2 m, were short (median duration 0.1 –0.8 min), with virtually no time spent at the bottom of the dive. During trips to sea, which ranged from less than 1 day to more than 4 days, females dove continuously. Mean dive frequency was between 11 and 19 per hour. Surface intervals were short (median 0.9–1.2 min) and there was no apparent diel variation in dive depth or frequency. The estimated aerobic dive limit of the females was exceeded on only a few dives (0.7 – 6.2%). Transit to potential foraging areas took 0.2–8.3 h.

Prolonged, continuous, deep diving by northern elephant seals

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 2514-2519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burney J. Le Boeuf ◽  
Yasuhiko Naito ◽  
Anthony C. Huntley ◽  
Tomohiro Asaga
Keyword(s):  
Dive Depth ◽  
Dive Duration ◽  
Mirounga Angustirostris ◽  
Steady State Condition ◽  
Elephant Seals ◽  
Deep Diving ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Northern Elephant Seals ◽  
Extended Surface ◽  
The Mean

An earlier study showed that female northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) dive deeply and continuously during the first 1–3 weeks at sea following lactation. We report that this dive pattern is maintained for the entire 2½-month period at sea. Time–depth recorders were attached to six adult females at Año Nuevo, California; three instruments recorded continuously and three instruments recorded every 3rd day at sea. The mean dive rate was 2.5–3.3 dives per hour, with a mean of < 3.5 min on the surface between dives. This resulted in females spending 83–90% of the time at sea underwater. Interruption of continuous diving, characterized by extended surface intervals with a mean of 51.9 ± 65.5 min, was rare, following only 0.42% of the dives. Modal dive duration per female was in the range 17.1–22.5 min. The longest dive was 62 min and was followed by a surface interval of < 2.6 min. Modal dive depth per female was in the range 500–700 m; three females had dives that exceeded 1000 m, with the deepest dive estimated at 1250 m. Deep diving to 500 m or more was always preceded by a descending-staircase pattern of initially shallow to increasingly deeper dives. The continuous, deep diving pattern of this pelagic seal is evidently a steady-state condition. This has important implications for understanding diving adaptations and the physiological processes underlying them.

Cephalopod prey of two Ziphius cavirostris (Cetacea) stranded on the western Mediterranean coast

2000 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Blanco ◽  
J.A. Raga
Keyword(s):  
Stomach Contents ◽  
Western Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean Coast ◽  
Diving Behaviour ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Deep Diving ◽  
Beaked Whales ◽  
Ziphius Cavirostris

The stomach contents of two Cuvier's beaked whales (Ziphius cavirostris), male and female, stranded on the western Mediterranean coast were analysed. Food consisted exclusively of hard cephalopod remains. The character of this teuthophagous diet agrees with the offshore and deep diving behaviour of Z. cavirostris.

scholarly journals Distribution and abundance of beaked whales (Family Ziphiidae) Off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A.

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 997-1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. McLellan ◽  
Ryan J. McAlarney ◽  
Erin W. Cummings ◽  
Andrew J. Read ◽  
Charles G. M. Paxton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Cape Hatteras ◽  
Beaked Whales

scholarly journals Description of the skeleton of the fossil beaked whale <i>Messapicetus gregarius</i>: searching potential proxies for deep-diving abilities

Fossil Record ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Ramassamy ◽  
Olivier Lambert ◽  
Alberto Collareta ◽  
Mario Urbina ◽  
Giovanni Bianucci
Keyword(s):  
Cervical Vertebrae ◽  
Diving Behaviour ◽  
Linear Measurements ◽  
Functional Interpretation ◽  
Deep Diving ◽  
Body Regions ◽  
Beaked Whales ◽  
Different Depths ◽  
Degree Of Association ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. Ziphiidae (beaked whales) are a successful family of medium- to large-sized toothed whales. Their extant members perform regular deep dives beyond the photic zone to forage for cephalopods and fish. Conversely, extinct long-snouted stem ziphiids are interpreted as epipelagic predators. However, some aspects of this hypothesis remain unclear due to the lack of clear morphological proxies for recognizing regular deep divers. We compared the forelimb, neck, and pterygoid sinus system of the fossil ziphiid Messapicetus gregarius with those of other odontocetes to evaluate the potential of these body regions as proxies to assess deep-diving specialization. The reconstructed musculature of the neck and forelimb of M. gregarius was also compared with that of other odontocetes. We also quantified variation in the proportions of the forelimb and the hamular fossa of the pterygoid sinus (HF) using 16 linear measurements. The degree of association between diving behaviour in extant odontocetes and these measurements was evaluated with and without phylogenetic correction. Reconstruction of the neck musculature suggests that M. gregarius possessed a neck more flexible than most extant ziphiids due to the lower degree of fusion of the cervical vertebrae and the large insertions for the M. longus colli and Mm. intertransversarii ventrales cervicis. While neck rigidity might be related to deep diving, differences in neck flexibility among extant ziphiids indicate a more complex functional interpretation. The relationship between forelimb morphology and diving behaviour was not significant, both with and without phylogenetic correction, suggesting that it cannot be used to assess deep-diving abilities with the parameters considered here. Measurements of the HF revealed successful to evaluate deep-diving abilities in odontocetes, with an enlargement of this structure in deep divers. Considering other evidence that suggests an epipelagic behaviour, we propose different scenarios to explain the observation of an enlarged HF in M. gregarius: (1) this species may have fed at different depths; (2) it performed deep dives to avoid potential predators; or (3) the enlarged HF and deep-diving habitat correspond to an ancestral condition, with M. gregarius returning to a more epipelagic habitat.

scholarly journals Effects of a scientific echo sounder on the behavior of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus)

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (5) ◽  
pp. 716-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Quick ◽  
Lindesay Scott-Hayward ◽  
Dina Sadykova ◽  
Doug Nowacek ◽  
Andrew Read
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Generalized Estimating Equations ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Hidden Markov ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Cape Hatteras ◽  
Consistent Increase ◽  
Pilot Whales ◽  
Acoustic Recording ◽  
Echo Sounder

Active echo sounding devices are often employed for commercial or scientific purposes in the foraging habitats of marine mammals. We conducted an experiment off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, USA, to assess whether the behavior of short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala macrorhynchus) changed when exposed to an EK60 scientific echo sounder. We attached digital acoustic recording tags (DTAGs) to nine individuals, five of which were exposed. A hidden Markov model to characterize diving states with and without exposure provided no evidence for a change in foraging behavior. However, generalized estimating equations to model changes in heading variance over the entire tag record under all experimental conditions showed a consistent increase in heading variance during exposure over all values of depth and pitch. This suggests that regardless of behavioral state, the whales changed their heading more frequently when the echo sounder was active. This response could represent increased vigilance in which whales maintained awareness of echo sounder location by increasing their heading variance and provides the first quantitative analysis on reactions of cetaceans to a scientific echo sounder.

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