Robinson Nathan J, Doñate-Ordóñez Ruth, Chatzievangelou Damianos, Brooks Annabelle M L, Cuffley Jack, Fields Candace Y A, Hoefer Sebastian, Pinou Theodora, Smith Alexander, Mills Sophie
Institut de Ciències del Mar Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) Barcelona Spain.
Fundación Oceanogràfic Ciudad de Las Artes y Las Ciencias Valencia Spain.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Dec 23;14(12):e70707. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70707. eCollection 2024 Dec.
The use of animal-borne devices (= biologgers) has revolutionized the study of marine megafauna, yet there remains a paucity of data concerning the behavioral and physiological impacts of biologger attachment and retention. Here, we used animal-borne cameras to characterize the behavior and dive duration of juvenile green turtles () in The Bahamas for up to 210 min after biologger deployment ( = 58). For a "control," we used unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect comparable data from nonhandled green turtles ( = 25) in the same habitats. Animal-borne footage revealed that immediately after release turtles spent 70%-80% of their time swimming with a mean dive duration of 45.3 ± 34.3 s (SD). Over time, the percentage of time spent swimming decreased alongside an increase in dive duration until reaching a plateau around 90 min. However, the "control" UAV data for time spent swimming and dive durations were more comparable to the behaviors observed immediately after biologger deployment than during the plateau. We observed no significant differences in dive durations based on body size, and differences in behaviors based on body size were also minimal. We conclude that the effects of handling stress and biologger attachment on the behavior and dive duration of juvenile green turtles are evident up to 90 min postdeployment. After that, it is possible that either: (1) the effects of biologger deployment and retention are negligible, but UAVs may produce biased data that overestimates the proportion of time turtles typically spend swimming or (2) longer durations (> 210 min) are necessary for turtle behaviors to return to nonhandled levels and UAVs accurately represent the proportion of time turtles typically spend swimming. Answering this question, alongside further research into the physiological and behavioral implications of handling stress and biologger attachment, is essential to improve ethical biologging guidelines for sea turtles.
使用动物携带设备（即生物记录器）彻底改变了对海洋大型动物的研究，但关于生物记录器附着和留存对行为及生理影响的数据仍然匮乏。在此，我们使用动物携带相机来描述巴哈马群岛幼年绿海龟（）在生物记录器部署后长达210分钟的行为和潜水时长（=58）。作为“对照”，我们使用无人飞行器（UAV）从同一栖息地未被处理的绿海龟（=25）收集可比数据。动物携带的影像显示，放生后海龟立即花费70%-80%的时间游泳，平均潜水时长为45.3±34.3秒（标准差）。随着时间推移，游泳时间的百分比下降，同时潜水时长增加，直至约90分钟时趋于平稳。然而，“对照”UAV关于游泳时间和潜水时长的数据与生物记录器部署后立即观察到的行为更具可比性，而非在平稳期。我们未观察到基于体型的潜水时长存在显著差异，基于体型的行为差异也极小。我们得出结论，处理应激和生物记录器附着对幼年绿海龟行为和潜水时长的影响在部署后90分钟内是明显的。在此之后，可能出现以下两种情况：（1）生物记录器部署和留存的影响可忽略不计，但UAV可能产生有偏差的数据，高估了海龟通常游泳时间的比例；或者（2）海龟行为恢复到未处理水平需要更长时间（>210分钟），且UAV准确代表了海龟通常游泳时间的比例。回答这个问题，以及进一步研究处理应激和生物记录器附着对生理和行为的影响，对于完善海龟伦理生物记录指南至关重要。
