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Heart rate and behavior of fur seals: implications for measurement of field energetics

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Richard BevanORCiD

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Abstract

Archival data loggers were used to collect information about depth, swimming speed, and heart rate in 23 free-ranging antarctic fur seals. Deployments averaged 9.6 +/- 5.6 days (SD) and totaled 191 days of recording. Heart rate averaged 108.7 +/- 17.7 beats/min (SD) but varied from 83 to 145 beats/min among animals. Morphometrics explained most variations in heart rate among animals. These interacted with diving activity and swimming speed to produce a complex relationship between heart rate and activity patterns. Heart; rate was also correlated with behavior over time lags of several hours. There was significant (P < 0.05) variation among animals in the degree of diving bradycardia. On average, heart rate declined from 100- 130 beats/min before the dive to 70-100 beats/min during submersion. On the basis of the relationship between heart rate and rate of oxygen consumption, the overall metabolic rate was 5.46 +/- 1.61 W/kg (SD). Energy expenditure appears to be allocated to different activities within the metabolic scope of individual animals. This highlights the possibility that some activities can be mutually exclusive of one another.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Bevan RM; Boyd IL; Woakes AJ; Butler PJ

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology

Year: 1999

Volume: 276

Issue: 3

Pages: H844-H857

Print publication date: 01/03/1999

ISSN (print): 0363-6135

Publisher: American Physiological Society

URL: http://ajpheart.physiology.org/content/276/3/H844.full

Notes: Times Cited: 0 172CN AMER J PHYSIOL-HEART CIRC PHY

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