Secrets Of Antarctic Fur Seal

About

Summary Research into the winter foraging and diving behaviour of Antarctic fur seals has revealed, for the first time, two contrasting strategies the predators use to survive in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) researcher Ben Arthur, with assistance from the University of Pretoria, tracked seals from Marion Island in the southern Indian Ocean and found that while about half headed south of the Antarctic Polar Front and hunted prey on short, shallow dives, the remainder stayed further north and foraged on long, deep dives. Mr Arthur said it was the first time advanced bio-logging technology had been used to track Antarctic fur seals and their diving behaviour during winter, revealing the clear choice the animals face in deciding how and where to find food. As a seal, do I swim 2,000 kilometres into the Southern Ocean to where it’s going to be easier for me to get prey, or do I stay closer to land and forage a bit harder but don’t have to travel as far? This kind of individual difference is something that’s often a bit overlooked in ecology as we tend to look at populations and assume all animals are behaving the same way, Mr Arthur said. “But studies like this show that faced with the same conditions almost identical animals can behave very differently.  “It’s difficult to say how the two strategies emerged but it’s possibly related to conditions encountered during the first year or two of the animal’s life.