Condensed tannins (CTs) account for up to 20% of the dry matter in forage legumes used as ruminant feeds. Beneficial animal responses to CTs have included improved growth, milk and wool production, fertility, and reduced methane emissions and ammonia volatilization from dung or urine. Most important is the ability of such forages to combat the effects of gastrointestinal parasitic nematodes. Inconsistent animal responses to CTs were initially attributed to concentration in the diet, but recent research has highlighted the importance of their molecular structures, as well as concentration, and also the composition of the diet containing the CTs. The importance of CT structural traits cannot be underestimated. Interdisciplinary research is the key to unraveling the relationships between CT traits and bioactivities and will enable future on‐farm exploitation of these natural plant compounds. Research is also needed to provide plant breeders with guidelines and screening tools to optimize CT traits, in both the forage and the whole diet. In addition, improvements are needed in the competitiveness and agronomic traits of CT‐containing legumes and our understanding of options for their inclusion in ruminant diets. Farmers need varieties that are competitive in mixed swards and have predictable bioactivities. This review covers recent results from multidisciplinary research on sainfoin (Onobrychis Mill. spp.) and provides an overview of current developments with several other tanniniferous forages. Tannin chemistry is now being linked with agronomy, plant breeding, animal nutrition, and parasitology. The past decade has yielded considerable progress but also generated more questions—an enviable consequence of new knowledge!

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When studying diving behaviour, it is important to know whether a species is operating at or close to its maximum physiological capacity, because if it is, it will be less capable of compensating for normal environmental or human-induced fluctuations in its environment. New Zealand (NZ) sea lions Phocarctos hookeri are among the world's rarest pinnipeds with a restricted distribution and abundance to the most southerly limit of their known range, NZ's sub-Antarctic. Female NZ sea lions are the deepest and longest diving of the otariids, foraging further from their breeding rookeries than any other sea lion. In this study, the diving behaviours of 18 female NZ sea lions from Enderby Island, Auckland Islands, were recorded during early lactation over two austral summers, 2003 and 2004. While at sea, sea lions dived almost continuously, spending on average 52.7% of their time submerged (46 m). The mean dive depth ( AE SE) for all dives was 129.5 AE 5.3 m (range 94.6 AE 1.1 to 178.9 AE 1.6 m). The mean duration of dives was 4.0 AE 0.1 min with an average of 40 AE 2.9% of all dive times spent in the deepest 85% of the dive. Although there was high variation in diving behaviour among individuals, overall, animals were found to be diving beyond their estimated aerobic dive limits on 68% of all dives. Given that female NZ sea lions have a high percentage of dives that are beyond their theoretical aerobic limits, we ask whether this represents a miscalculation in aerobic limits, is it a species highly adapted to carry an anaerobic load or a species that is physically stretched to their limits? A species that is presumably under physiological stress just to maintain its current low static population numbers is also likely to be more susceptible to external impacts and this needs consideration for their management.

The overlap between marine mammal species and fisheries is a source of ongoing conflict and concern. This study used satellite telemetry to examine the foraging patterns of 26 lactating female New Zealand sea lions Phocarctos hookeri from the Sandy Bay colony, Enderby Island, Auckland Islands (50°50' S, 166°28' E), over 4 consecutive austral summers from 2001 to 2004. Animals were fitted with satellite-linked platform transmitting terminals (PTTs), which yielded 9200 filtered foraging locations at sea. Trips lasted a mean of 66.2 h (SE = 4.2, n = 183). Mean return travel distance per trip was 423 km (SE = 43.9, max. = 1087, n = 183). There was a high level of variation in individual foraging parameters, and evidence of individual preference and partitioning in foraging locations among individuals within the colony. New Zealand sea lions exhibited preferential use of the continental shelf and its edge and this pattern was consistent among years. Female foraging locations overlap temporally and spatially with the operation of the sub-Antarctic arrow squid trawl fishery. Here we identify the key foraging areas for female New Zealand sea lions from Sandy Bay, show how these overlap with the operational areas of the squid fishery and discuss the importance of these findings to the management of New Zealand sea lions and the sub-Antarctic squid fishery. KEY WORDS: Phocarctos hookeri · New Zealand sea lions · Foraging ecology · Fisheries interactionResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher

Diving and foraging behaviours of marine predators are thought to be coupled with species demographics, with benthic foraging species found to have small population sizes and low growth rates. This was thought to be the case for New Zealand (NZ) sea lions Phocarctos hookeri, previously identified as solely benthic foragers with a small declining population. Female NZ sea lions dive deeper and for longer than any other otariids (eared seals). They exceed their calculated aerobic dive limits (cADL) during 68% of all dives, indicating that they are operating near their maximum physiological capacity. Recently, however, individual NZ sea lions have been found to have 2 distinct dive profile types or foraging patterns: a benthic diving profile and a deeper, more varied meso-pelagic diving profile. The ecological significance and implications of individual foraging specialisation in otariids have had limited attention in the past. Here, we compared the foraging behaviour of female NZ sea lions that use these 2 distinct dive profiles and discuss how the 2 foraging patterns may indicate differing prey choice, as well as their possible implications for individual reproductive ability and interactions with fisheries and, therefore, species demographics. Our ultimate goal is to understand the causes of this individual foraging specialisation and to incorporate such variation when determining management options for this threatened, declining species.