Diving of the sea snake Pelamis platurus in the Gulf of Panam�

Rubinoff, Ira; Graham, John L.; Motta, Jorge

doi:10.1007/bf00391297

Cited by 29 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…S-dives have not been descnbed for sea turtles in former studies, but have been observed in the yellowbellied sea snake Pelamis platurus (Rubinoff et al 1986, Graham et al 1987). However, this dive type has never been observed in the extensive literature on diving mammals and birds and seems to be reptilianspecific.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Reptilian diving:highly variable dive patterns in the green turtle Chelonia mydas

Hochscheid¹,

Godley²,

Broderick³

et al. 1999

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

110

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Diving reptiles, unlike most diving birds and marnrnals, return infrequently to the surface to breathe. Spending the bulk of their lives underwater, they are likely to have developed a large vanety of specific behavioural patterns different from those of their warm-blooded Counterparts. However, for technical reasons, underwater behaviour of these aquatic reptiles rernains poorly understood. In this study green turtles Chelonia mydas nesting on Cyprus (Eastern Mediterranean) were equipped with multi-channel data loggers monitoring diving behaviour and activity (via a logger-integrated 3-D compass which served as an activity sensor) during the inter-nesting interval. Data from 2 turtles for 2 consecutive inter-nesting intervals were available for detailed dive analysis. Both turtles showed highly variable dive patterns ranging from travelling subsurface dives to specific dive types such as U-(rnainly resting and foraging dives), S-(a form of energy saving swimming) and V-dives. The green turtles stayed near the coast throughout the study, dived no deeper than ca 25 m, but remained underwater for up to ca 40 min The recordings of the activity sensor revealed high activity levels (less than 20% resting d-') during the whole inter-nesting penod which was attributed to extensive foraging. The combination of both the activity data and the dive data showed that the turtles were engaged in traveliing movernents for 46% of the inter-nesting time spent underwater, foraged for 34 % and rested for 1 2 % of the time. We discuss the physiological, ecological and conservation implications of these results.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Reptilian diving:highly variable dive patterns in the green turtle Chelonia mydas

Hochscheid¹,

Godley²,

Broderick³

et al. 1999

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…During travelling periods, turtles repeatedly performed dives with a distinctive profile characterised by a prolonged phase of gradual ascending during the middle of dives, which have been widely reported in marine reptiles, such as sea snakes (Rubinoff et al, 1986), green turtles (e.g. Hochscheid et al, 1999), loggerhead turtles (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea turtles compensate deflection of heading at the sea surface during directional travel

Narazaki

Sato

Abernathy

et al. 2009

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYAir-breathing marine animals, including sea turtles, utilise two fundamentally different environments (i.e. sea surface and underwater) during migration. Many satellite telemetry studies have shown travel paths at relatively large spatio-temporal scales, discussing the orientation and navigation mechanisms that guide turtles. However, as travel paths obtained by satellite telemetry only reflect movements at the surface, little is known about movements and orientation ability underwater. In this study, to assess orientation ability both at the surface and underwater, fine-scale 3-D movements of free-ranging loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta were reconstructed by using multi-sensor data loggers. Video systems ('Crittercam') were also used to record the behaviour of the turtles and the visual information surrounding the turtles. During August and October in 2006 and 2007, eight turtles were released from Otsuchi Bay, Japan (39°20Ј30N, 141°56Ј00E), and a total of 118h of 3-D movements were reconstructed. Turtles maintained highly straight-line courses (straightness index >0.95) during 41% of the total duration (i.e. 'travelling periods'). During travelling periods, turtles swam continuously, maintaining unidirectional heading throughout dives whereas turtles changed heading remarkably at the surface. Despite highly directional movements during dives, travel direction tended to shift by the end of dives lasting 10 minutes or more. Such deflections seemed to be compensated during subsequent surfacing periods because there was a negative relationship between changes in travel direction arising during dives and subsequent surfacing periods. Therefore, remarkable changes in heading at the surface could be interpreted as direction-searching behaviour. Our results suggested that turtles undertaking directional travel were more dependent on directional information that was reliable at the surface. Supplementary material available online at

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“…Data on water temperature, depth, or swimming speed or direction have been telemetered from various vertebrates, providing such information as dive profiles and thermal preferences (e.g., Nelson, 1978;Westerberg, 1984;Rubinoff et al, 1986;review by Wilson et al, 1986). In some studies, ultrasonic biotelemetry has been used to record physiological functions offree-ranging animals, particularly heart rate in large vertebrates (e.g., Wardle and Kanwisher, 1974).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrasonic Biotelemetry of Muscle Activity from Free-Ranging Marine Animals: A New Method for Studying Foraging by Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus)

Wolcott

Hines

1989

The Biological Bulletin

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Abstract. The design and utilization of a small (16 g in air, 6 g in water) ultrasonic transmitter for animal tracking and bio-telemetry of muscle activity are described. To our knowledge this is the first use of such devices to telemeter a specific behavior (ingestion) from a free-ranging marine predator. The transmitter produces regularly recurring short tracking pulses, and long pulses triggered by the action potentials of a muscle. Pulses are transmitted through conductive estuarine water by a piezoelectric ring transducer at a frequency of about 75 KHz. The preparation of a subject animal, insertion of electrodes, and attachment of the transmitter are described for the telemetry of mandibular muscle contraction in the blue crab. The transmitter provides a signal that corresponds unequivocally with feeding activity and allows enumeration of bites required to consume a food item. Number of bites, and feeding time, are both positively correlated with the size of the prey specimen. As a test of the technique's feasibility, a blue crab was equipped with one of the transmitters and released in a subestuary of Chesapeake Bay. The crab was tracked continuously for 96 hours while every contraction of the mandibular muscle was recorded. The crab traveled 4000 m along the subestuary at an average speed of 12 m/h, but showed periods of rapid movement of up to 325 m/h. The crab fed 2-7 times per day, with a feeding bout comprising 15-2750 bites. The limited data did not indicate that either movement or feeding exhibit a diel or tidal cycle. Introduction We describe the design of a new ultrasonic telemetry transmitter for relatively small marine or estuarine ani-

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Diving of the sea snake Pelamis platurus in the Gulf of Panam�

Cited by 29 publications

References 14 publications

Reptilian diving:highly variable dive patterns in the green turtle Chelonia mydas

Reptilian diving:highly variable dive patterns in the green turtle Chelonia mydas

Sea turtles compensate deflection of heading at the sea surface during directional travel

Ultrasonic Biotelemetry of Muscle Activity from Free-Ranging Marine Animals: A New Method for Studying Foraging by Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus)

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