Wiggle and glide: fine-scale telemetry reveals unique diving strategies in benthic-foraging sea snakes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The efficient acquisition of two critical but spatially separated resources -food and oxygen- governs the daily movements and diving patterns of air-breathing aquatic animals. Unlike pinnipeds, turtles and seabirds, fully marine ('true') sea snakes spend their entire lifecycle at sea and have evolved specialised movement behaviours. However, fine-scale data on the diving behaviour of free-ranging sea snakes remain scarce, limiting our understanding of their ecology and vulnerability to anthropogenic threats.

Methods

We used acoustic telemetry to track five individuals of two benthic-foraging sea snake species (Hydrophis stokesii, H. major) in Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia, and Baie des Citrons, New Caledonia. Each snake was continuously tracked using a direction

SUBMITTER: Coppersmith S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12395837 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature