High olfactory sensitivity for dimethyl sulphide in harbour seals.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kowalewsky S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1617201 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
High olfactory sensitivity for dimethyl sulphide in harbour seals.
Kowalewsky Sylvia S Dambach Martin M Mauck Björn B Dehnhardt Guido G
Biology letters 20060301 1
Productive areas are patchily distributed at sea and represent important feeding grounds for many marine organisms. Although pinnipeds are known to travel on direct routes and return regularly to particular feeding sites, the environmental information seals use to perform this navigation is as yet unknown. As atmospheric dimethyl sulphide (DMS) has been demonstrated to be a reliable indicator for profitable foraging areas, we tested seals for their ability to smell DMS at concentrations typical ...[more]
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