Movements of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) tagged at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Wilson, Steven G.; Polovina, J.J.; Stewart, Brent S.; Meekan, Mark G.

doi:10.1007/s00227-005-0153-8

Cited by 138 publications

(181 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…For example, whale sharks also make localized movements within coastal regions for weeks, before making seasonal (and likely directed) migrations which can involve swimming 1000s of km (e.g. Wilson et al 2006). At large spatial scales, planktivorous basking sharks are more efficient at locating broad prey patches than predicted by a simple random walk, and it was suggested that they may use horizontal Lévy flights, although the coarse resolution of satellite tracking prevented empirical testing of this hypothesis (Sims et al 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Area-restricted searching by manta rays and their response to spatial scale in lagoon habitats

Papastamatiou¹,

DeSalles²,

McCauley³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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Animals may use a variety of search patterns to locate resources when the exact locations of those resources are unknown. Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that the optimal type of random walk will vary based on the distribution of resources such as prey. Once resources are located, the animal may utilize a movement strategy that allows it to remain within a small area and maximize resource acquisition (area-restricted searching, ARS). Detecting the location of ARS zones is important, as it identifies profitable habitat to the animal, although such analysis is rarely conducted with fishes. We utilized correlated random walk (CRW), fractal, and first passage time (FPT) analysis to quantify the response of planktivorous manta rays Manta alfredi to spatial scale and identify locations of ARS within lagoons at Palmyra Atoll. Mantas used CRWs at small spatial scales to move between prey patches, but not at larger scales as they performed home-ranging behavior. One domain was located with straighter movements at scales < 330 m, and more tortuous movements at scales > 330 m. ARS was located adjacent to ledges with high abundance of plankton, or within channels. Fractal and FPT analyses suggest that mantas used patches that were 5 to 49% of the scale of their activity space over short time periods (days). Quantitative analytical tools help explain observed patterns of movements and demonstrate the importance of lagoon habitats to these macro-planktivores.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Area-restricted searching by manta rays and their response to spatial scale in lagoon habitats

Papastamatiou¹,

DeSalles²,

McCauley³

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…By using animalattached technologies to study submerged marine vertebrates, we demonstrate that this strategy operates in water across taxonomic clades as well as in air. Indeed, the species studied here all have to complete largescale migrations between patches of productivity [35][36][37] , which would make efficient transiting particularly important. Any reduction in the cost of transport is expected to be highly selected for in natural populations and similar constraints are presumed to result in a convergence of morphological or behav ioural solutions 38 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convergent evolution in locomotory patterns of flying and swimming animals

et al. 2011

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Locomotion is one of the major energetic costs faced by animals and various strategies have evolved to reduce its cost. Birds use interspersed periods of flapping and gliding to reduce the mechanical requirements of level flight while undergoing cyclical changes in flight altitude, known as undulating flight. Here we equipped free-ranging marine vertebrates with accelerometers and demonstrate that gait patterns resembling undulating flight occur in four marine vertebrate species comprising sharks and pinnipeds. Both sharks and pinnipeds display intermittent gliding interspersed with powered locomotion. We suggest, that the convergent use of similar gait patterns by distinct groups of animals points to universal physical and physiological principles that operate beyond taxonomic limits and shape common solutions to increase energetic efficiency. Energetically expensive large-scale migrations performed by many vertebrates provide common selection pressure for efficient locomotion, with potential for the convergence of locomotory strategies by a wide variety of species.

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“…The largest of the shark species, whale sharks are highly mobile (e.g., Wilson et al, 2006;Sleeman et al, 2010;Berumen et al, 2014;Robinson et al, 2017), but form predictable seasonal aggregations in hotspots around the world, predominantly associated with the presence of food (e.g., Motta et al, 2010;Robinson et al, 2013;Rohner et al, 2015a). Some whale sharks display a degree of site fidelity on an annual and inter-annual basis (Graham and Roberts, 2007;Holmberg et al, 2008;Fox et al, 2013;Araujo et al, 2017), and this predictability makes the whale shark an ideal target species for wildlife tourism (Catlin and Jones, 2010;Rowat and Brooks, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Photo-Identification Reveals the Population Dynamics and Strong Site Fidelity of Adult Whale Sharks to the Coastal Waters of Donsol, Philippines

McCoy

Burce²,

David³

et al. 2018

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Donsol in the Philippines is the longest running community-based whale shark (Rhincodon typus) ecotourism site in Southeast Asia, with peak visitation in 2012 of over 27,000 tourists. In order to understand this aggregation and the importance of the area to whale sharks, dedicated photographic identification (photo-ID) research began in 2007. In-water photo-ID surveys were conducted from tourism boats, weather and operator permitting, from December to June between 2007 and 2016. Visual matches of the unique spot patterns of each individual shark were validated by the pattern-recognition software Interactive Individual Identification System (I 3 S), and on the online database Wildbook for Whale Sharks (www.whaleshark.org). A total of 1,985 photo-ID trips over 895 survey days resulted in 6,786 encounters with R. typus. Combined with encounters from both dedicated research and citizen science dating back to 1998, 479 individual whale sharks were identified, making up 44% of the known whale shark population in the Philippines (n = 1,095). Of these, photographs of the pelvic region confirmed the sex for 158 males and 22 females. Visual size estimates ranged from 2 to 10 m (mean ± SD = 6.5 ± 1.6 m). Maturity in males (LT 50 ) was estimated at 6.8 ± 0.2 m total length, with 53% of males considered mature. Annually, the total number of individuals sighted varied between 15 and 185 (mean ± SD = 104 ± 55.53), with a recruitment of 3-90 new individuals yearly (mean ± SD = 46.8 ± 36.29). Modeled residency using maximum likelihood methods suggested whale sharks spent 49.8 ± S.E. 14.5 [95% CI (32.3-78.6)] days in Donsol each season, with 47.1-60.8 whale sharks at any one time during the season. Twenty individuals were recorded through photo-ID at other sites across the Philippines. The extended residency of whale sharks at Donsol, paired with the presence of sexually mature animals and the economic value of the tourism industry, highlights the importance of Donsol for this endangered species.

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Movements of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) tagged at Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia

Cited by 138 publications

References 44 publications

Area-restricted searching by manta rays and their response to spatial scale in lagoon habitats

Area-restricted searching by manta rays and their response to spatial scale in lagoon habitats

Convergent evolution in locomotory patterns of flying and swimming animals

Long-Term Photo-Identification Reveals the Population Dynamics and Strong Site Fidelity of Adult Whale Sharks to the Coastal Waters of Donsol, Philippines

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