Tremblay Yann, Cherel Yves, Oremus Marc, Tveraa Torkild, Chastel Olivier
Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé (CEBC), UPR 1934 du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), BP 14, F-79360 Villiers-en-Bois, France.
J Exp Biol. 2003 Jun;206(Pt 11):1929-40. doi: 10.1242/jeb.00363.
We tested the use of commercially available electronic time-depth recorders (TDRs) to quantify activities and thus total time budgets of seabirds. This new method involved first fitting TDRs onto the birds' bellies (not on their backs), and, secondly, analysing continuous recordings of temperature, light and pressure to differentiate activities on land and at sea. The birds studied were 12 common guillemots (Uria aalge) rearing chicks at Hornøya, in northern Norway. The method successfully recorded five different activities: at the colony, flying, diving, and resting or active at the sea surface. Overall, common guillemots spent 68% of their time at the colony and 32% at sea. While at sea, the birds spent the majority (77%) of their time at the surface, during which they were active 64% of the time, and rested only 13%. Birds engaged in the costly behaviours of flying and diving for shorter times (11% and 12% of their time at sea, respectively). The method allowed us to differentiate between two types of trips to sea based on the presence (foraging trips: 77% of the total number of trips) or absence (non-foraging trips: 23%) of dives. On average, foraging trips lasted 3.2 h, but most trips were shorter (<1 h), during which the mean estimated travel distance from the colony was 11 km. Diving occurred in bouts of 7.7+/-6.6 dives (mean +/- S.D.). The mean maximum dive depth was 10.2+/-7.6 m (deepest dive: 37 m), and the mean dive duration and post-dive intervals were 38.7+/-21.3 s (longest dive: 119 s) and 20+/-12 s, respectively. Direct and indirect evidence suggests that common guillemots had no difficulty in finding food during the study period, and that the TDRs had minimal effects on the birds' behaviour and physiology. The method is easy to use in the field and is applicable to many other flying seabird species; it is therefore an efficient way of collecting information on time budgets and diving behaviour in the context of various ecological and monitoring studies.
我们测试了使用市售电子时间深度记录仪（TDR）来量化海鸟的活动，从而得出其总时间预算。这种新方法首先是将TDR安装在鸟的腹部（而非背部），其次是分析温度、光照和压力的连续记录，以区分在陆地和海上的活动。所研究的鸟类是12只在挪威北部霍恩岛育雏的普通海鸠（海鸠属）。该方法成功记录了五种不同活动：在繁殖地、飞行、潜水以及在海面休息或活动。总体而言，普通海鸠68%的时间在繁殖地，32%的时间在海上。在海上时，鸟类大部分时间（77%）在海面，在此期间它们64%的时间处于活动状态，仅13%的时间在休息。鸟类进行飞行和潜水等代价高昂行为的时间较短（分别占其在海上时间的11%和12%）。该方法使我们能够根据是否有潜水行为（觅食之旅：占总旅程数的77%）或没有潜水行为（非觅食之旅：占23%）来区分两种出海行程。平均而言，觅食之旅持续3.2小时，但大多数旅程较短（<1小时），在此期间从繁殖地估计的平均旅行距离为11公里。潜水以7.7±6.6次潜水的次数进行（平均值±标准差）。平均最大潜水深度为10.2±7.6米（最深潜水：37米），平均潜水持续时间和潜水后间隔分别为38.7±21.3秒（最长潜水：119秒）和20±12秒。直接和间接证据表明，在研究期间普通海鸠觅食没有困难，并且TDR对鸟类行为和生理的影响最小。该方法在野外易于使用，适用于许多其他飞行海鸟物种；因此，在各种生态和监测研究中，它是收集有关时间预算和潜水行为信息的有效方式。
