Foraging Behavior of Subantarctic Fur Seals Supports Efficiency of a Marine Reserve's Design.

ABSTRACT: Foraging behaviour of marine top predators is increasingly being used to identify areas of ecological importance. This is largely enabled by the ability of many such species to forage extensively in search of prey that is often concentrated in oceanographically productive areas. To identify important habitat in the Southern Indian Ocean within and around South Africa's Prince Edward Islands' Marine Protected Area (MPA), satellite transmitters were deployed on 12 lactating Subantarctic fur seals Arctocephalus tropicalis at Prince Edward Island (PEI) itself. Switching state space models were employed to correct ARGOS tracks and estimate behavioural states for locations along predicted tracks, namely travelling or area restricted search (ARS). A random forest model showed that distance from t

SUBMITTER: Kirkman SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4862747 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature