کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
2193777 1098396 2012 10 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
Foraging behavior and prey of sea otters in a soft- and mixed-sediment benthos in Alaska
موضوعات مرتبط
علوم زیستی و بیوفناوری علوم کشاورزی و بیولوژیک علوم دامی و جانورشناسی
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
Foraging behavior and prey of sea otters in a soft- and mixed-sediment benthos in Alaska
چکیده انگلیسی

Sea otter (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) foraging behavior and prey preference were studied from June to August 2001–2004 in Simpson Bay, Prince William Sound, Alaska. The study area has an average water depth of 30 m and a benthos primarily of soft- and mixed-sediment with no canopy-forming kelps. A total of 1816 foraging dives from 211 bouts were recorded. Overall, dives ranged in depth from <5 to 82 m; most dives were less than 15 m (40%) with smaller, secondary peaks at 25–30 m (10%) and 50–55 m (7%). Average dive depth and duration were 27 m ± 19.5 and 1.89 min ± 0.88, respectively. Dive durations were all significantly different: male > unknown > female. Dive depths reflected the bathymetry (percentage of the bay within a depth range) of Simpson Bay but favored shallow areas. 87% of foraging dives were successful, and 44% of the prey was positively identified: 75% clams, 9% Pacific blue mussels, 6% crabs, 2% Reddish scallops and a variety of other invertebrates. There was no evidence for prey specialization among the sexes. Although sea otters in Simpson Bay rely heavily on bivalves, their diet has remained unchanged for the past 18 years, and the minimum summer population has been constant for at least the past nine years. It appears that bivalves are the predominant and stable component of the diet, and their productivity is sufficient to sustain a stable population of sea otters with a minimum peak summer density of 4.3 adult otters km−2 and an average annual density of ca. 2.9 adult otters km−2 for the past nine years and probably longer.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Mammalian Biology - Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde - Volume 77, Issue 4, July 2012, Pages 271–280
نویسندگان
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