Breathing Patterns Indicate Cost of Exercise During Diving and Response to Experimental Sound Exposures in Long-Finned Pilot Whales.

ABSTRACT: Air-breathing marine predators that target sub-surface prey have to balance the energetic benefit of foraging against the time, energetic and physiological costs of diving. Here we use on-animal data loggers to assess whether such trade-offs can be revealed by the breathing rates (BR) and timing of breaths in long-finned pilot whales (Globicephela melas). We used the period immediately following foraging dives in particular, for which respiratory behavior can be expected to be optimized for gas exchange. Breath times and fluke strokes were detected using onboard sensors (pressure, 3-axis acceleration) attached to animals using suction cups. The number and timing of breaths were quantified in non-linear mixed models that incorporated serial correlation and individual as a random effe

SUBMITTER: Isojunno S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6232938 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature