Diving behaviour of lactating harbour seals and their pups during maternal foraging trips

Abstract

Female harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) undertake foraging trips during mid to late lactation. We show that they are accompanied by their pup during many of these foraging trips. Time-depth recorder data were obtained from 20 lactating females and 14 of their pups in 1995 and 1996 at Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Overall, females spent 55.4 ± 4.68% (mean ± SE) of their time at sea compared with 39.8 ± 2.29% for pups. Like those of their mothers, pups' dives occurred in clusters or bouts: 71.4 ± 4.4 dives, 2.5 ± 0.15 h in duration. Bouts of diving by females and pups began 0-3 days post partum. Mean dive duration of pups increased from about 1 to 1.5 min over the course of lactation, but was still shorter than that of adult females (1.5-2.25 min). Both females and pups appeared to dive within their theoretical aerobic dive limits (TADL) of 8.9 and 2.6-3.1 min, respectively. Up to 3.6% of dives by some pups may have exceeded their TADL. Pups appeared to compensate for their lesser diving ability by making more and shorter dives per bout than females, particularly during early lactation.