Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
Biol Lett. 2018 Feb;14(2). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2017.0722.
The cost of pregnancy is hard to study in marine mammals, particularly in species that undergo pregnancy while diving continuously at sea such as elephant seals (genus ). We analysed the diving behaviour of confirmed pregnant and non-pregnant northern elephant seals (, = 172) and showed that after an initial continuous increase in dive duration, dives of pregnant females become shorter after week 17. The reasons for this reduction in dive duration remain unknown, but we hypothesize that increased fetal demand for oxygen could be the cause. Our findings reveal an opportunity to explore the use of biologging data to investigate pregnancy status of free-ranging marine mammals and factors that could affect pregnancy success.
在海洋哺乳动物中，很难研究怀孕的成本，尤其是在像象海豹（属）这样在海上连续潜水时怀孕的物种中。我们分析了已确认怀孕和未怀孕的北方象海豹（n = 172）的潜水行为，并表明怀孕雌性的潜水时间在第 17 周后会缩短。潜水时间减少的原因尚不清楚，但我们假设胎儿对氧气的需求增加可能是原因。我们的发现为探索使用生物标记数据来研究自由生活的海洋哺乳动物的怀孕状况以及可能影响怀孕成功的因素提供了机会。
