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Diving Related Changes in the Blood Oxygen Stores of Rehabilitating Harbor Seal Pups (Phoca vitulina).

ABSTRACT: Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) pups begin diving within hours of birth, stimulating the development of the blood oxygen (O2) stores necessary to sustain underwater aerobic metabolism. Since harbor seals experience a brief nursing period, the early-life development of these blood O2 stores is necessary for successful post-weaning foraging. If mothers and pups become prematurely separated, the pup may be transported to a wildlife rehabilitation center for care. Previous studies suggest that the shallow pools and lack of diving in rehabilitation facilities may lead to under-developed blood O2 stores, but diving behavior during rehabilitation has not been investigated. This study aimed to simultaneously study the diving behaviors and blood O2 store development of rehabilitating harbor seal pups. Standard hematology measurements (Hct, Hb, RBC, MCV, MCH, MCHC) were taken to investigate O2 storage capacity and pups were equipped with time-depth recorders to investigate natural diving behavior while in rehabilitation. Linear mixed models of the data indicate that all measured blood parameters changed with age; however, when compared to literature values for wild harbor seal pups, rehabilitating pups have smaller red blood cells (RBCs) that can store less hemoglobin (Hb) and subsequently, less O2, potentially limiting their diving capabilities. Wild pups completed longer dives at younger ages (maximum reported <25 days of age: 9 min) in previous studies than the captive pups in this study (maximum <25 days of age: 2.86 min). However, captivity may only affect the rate of development, as long duration dives were observed (maximum during rehabilitation: 13.6 min at 89 days of age). Further, this study suggests that there may be a positive relationship between RBC size and the frequency of long duration dives. Thus, rehabilitating harbor seal pups should be encouraged to make frequent, long duration dives to prepare themselves for post-release foraging.

SUBMITTER: Thomas A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4465541 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:During the breeding season, male harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) make underwater acoustic displays using vocalizations known as roars. These roars have been shown to function in territory establishment in some breeding areas and have been hypothesized to be important for female choice, but the function of these sounds remains unresolved. This study consisted of a series of playback experiments in which captive female harbor seals were exposed to recordings of male roars to determine if females respond to recordings of male vocalizations and whether or not they respond differently to roars from categories with different acoustic characteristics. The categories included roars with characteristics of dominant males (longest duration, lowest frequency), subordinate males (shortest duration, highest frequency), combinations of call parameters from dominant and subordinate males (long duration, high frequency and short duration, low frequency), and control playbacks of water noise and water noise with tonal signals in the same frequency range as male signals. Results indicate that overall females have a significantly higher level of response to playbacks that imitate male vocalizations when compared to control playbacks of water noise. Specifically, there was a higher level of response to playbacks representing dominant male vocalization when compared to the control playbacks. For most individuals, there was a greater response to playbacks representing dominant male vocalizations compared to playbacks representing subordinate male vocalizations; however, there was no statistical difference between those two playback types. Additionally, there was no difference between the playbacks of call parameter combinations and the controls. Investigating female preference for male harbor seal vocalizations is a critical step in understanding the harbor seal mating system and further studies expanding on this captive study will help shed light on this important issue.

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Diving Related Changes in the Blood Oxygen Stores of Rehabilitating Harbor Seal Pups (Phoca vitulina).

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