Benjamin Morales-Vela
Daniel H. Slone
Janneth Adriana Padilla-Saldivar
James P. Reid
Hector Abuid Hernandez-Arana
Delma Nataly Castelblanco-Martinez
2015
<p>Diving or respiratory behavior in aquatic mammals can be used as an indicator of physiological activity and consequently, to infer behavioral patterns. Five Antillean manatees, <i>Trichechus manatus manatus</i>, were captured in Chetumal Bay and tagged with GPS tracking devices. The radios were equipped with a micropower saltwater sensor (SWS), which records the times when the tag assembly was submerged. The information was analyzed to establish individual fine-scale behaviors. For each fix, we established the following variables: distance (<i>D</i>), sampling interval (<i>T</i>), movement rate (<i>D</i>/<i>T</i>), number of dives (<i>N</i>), and total diving duration (TDD). We used logic criteria and simple scatterplots to distinguish between behavioral categories: ‘Travelling’ (<i>D</i>/<i>T</i> ≥ 3 km/h), ‘Surface’ (↓TDD, ↓<i>N</i>), ‘Bottom feeding’ (↑TDD, ↑<i>N</i>) and ‘Bottom resting’ (↑TDD, ↓<i>N</i>). Habitat categories were qualitatively assigned: Lagoon, Channels, Caye shore, City shore, Channel edge, and Open areas. The instrumented individuals displayed a daily rhythm of bottom activities, with surfacing activities more frequent during the night and early in the morning. More investigation into those cycles and other individual fine-scale behaviors related to their proximity to concentrations of human activity would be informative</p>
application/pdf
10.1016/j.mambio.2014.07.003
en
Elsevier
Inferring spatial and temporal behavioral patterns of free-ranging manatees using saltwater sensors of telemetry tags
article