seasonal activity budget of adult baltic ringed seals成人波罗的海环斑海豹季节性活动的预算.pdfVIP

Seasonal Activity Budget of Adult Baltic Ringed Seals 1 ¨ 2 ¨ 3 4 5 6 Tero Harkonen *, Mart Jussi , Ivar Jussi , Michail Verevkin , Lilia Dmitrieva , Eero Helle , Roustam Sagitov4, Karin C. Harding7 1 Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden, 2 Estonian Fund for Nature, Tartu, Estonia, 3 Estonian Marine Institute, Tallinn, Estonia, 4 St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 5 St. Petersburg Naturalist Society, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 6 Finnish Game and Fisheries Res. Institute, Helsinki, ¨ ¨ Finland, 7 Department of Marine Ecology, Goteborg University, Goteborg, Sweden Abstract Although ringed seals are important components in oceanic and fresh water ecosystems at high latitudes, little is known about how they exploit these harsh environments. Seasonal activity and diving behaviour of 19 adult Baltic ringed seals were studied by satellite telemetry. We elaborated an activity budget for ten months of the year, extending over the period from moult to the breeding season. Seals from three main regions showed explicit site fidelity and the distributions of animals tagged from different areas did not overlap, suggesting separate stocks. Both the mean duration and the mean depth of dives peaked in June and July. Seals spent 70% (females) to 85% (males) of their time diving in June and July which decreased to 50% in late autumn. Less than one percent of dives exceeded 10 min in females, while 10% of male dives lasted longer than 10 min in June to September. Less than one percent of dives lasted for more than 25 min. Both females and males were most active during day time and hauled out predominantly during the night. Activity pattern