Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals

The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly developed whiskers to locate their prey. However, if and how seals use their whiskers while foraging in natural conditions remains unk...

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Autores principales: Adachi, Taiki, Naito, Yasuhiko, Robinson, Patrick W., Costa, Daniel P., Hückstädt, Luis A., Holser, Rachel R., Iwasaki, Wataru, Takahashi, Akinori
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9231483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35696561
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119502119
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author Adachi, Taiki
Naito, Yasuhiko
Robinson, Patrick W.
Costa, Daniel P.
Hückstädt, Luis A.
Holser, Rachel R.
Iwasaki, Wataru
Takahashi, Akinori
author_facet Adachi, Taiki
Naito, Yasuhiko
Robinson, Patrick W.
Costa, Daniel P.
Hückstädt, Luis A.
Holser, Rachel R.
Iwasaki, Wataru
Takahashi, Akinori
author_sort Adachi, Taiki
collection PubMed
description The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly developed whiskers to locate their prey. However, if and how seals use their whiskers while foraging in natural conditions remains unknown. We used animal-borne tags to show that free-ranging elephant seals use their whiskers for hydrodynamic prey sensing. Small, cheek-mounted video loggers documented seals actively protracting their whiskers in front of their mouths with rhythmic whisker movement, like terrestrial mammals exploring their environment. Seals focused their sensing effort at deep foraging depths, performing prolonged whisker protraction to detect, pursue, and capture prey. Feeding-event recorders with light sensors demonstrated that bioluminescence contributed to only about 20% of overall foraging success, confirming that whiskers play the primary role in sensing prey. Accordingly, visual prey detection complemented and enhanced prey capture. The whiskers’ role highlights an evolutionary alternative to echolocation for adapting to the extreme dark of the deep ocean environment, revealing how sensory abilities shape foraging niche segregation in deep-diving mammals. Mammals typically have mobile facial whiskers, and our study reveals the significant function of whiskers in the natural foraging behavior of a marine predator. We demonstrate the importance of field-based sensory studies incorporating multimodality to better understand how multiple sensory systems are complementary in shaping the foraging success of predators.
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spelling pubmed-92314832022-06-25 Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals Adachi, Taiki Naito, Yasuhiko Robinson, Patrick W. Costa, Daniel P. Hückstädt, Luis A. Holser, Rachel R. Iwasaki, Wataru Takahashi, Akinori Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences The darkness of the deep ocean limits the vision of diving predators, except when prey emit bioluminescence. It is hypothesized that deep-diving seals rely on highly developed whiskers to locate their prey. However, if and how seals use their whiskers while foraging in natural conditions remains unknown. We used animal-borne tags to show that free-ranging elephant seals use their whiskers for hydrodynamic prey sensing. Small, cheek-mounted video loggers documented seals actively protracting their whiskers in front of their mouths with rhythmic whisker movement, like terrestrial mammals exploring their environment. Seals focused their sensing effort at deep foraging depths, performing prolonged whisker protraction to detect, pursue, and capture prey. Feeding-event recorders with light sensors demonstrated that bioluminescence contributed to only about 20% of overall foraging success, confirming that whiskers play the primary role in sensing prey. Accordingly, visual prey detection complemented and enhanced prey capture. The whiskers’ role highlights an evolutionary alternative to echolocation for adapting to the extreme dark of the deep ocean environment, revealing how sensory abilities shape foraging niche segregation in deep-diving mammals. Mammals typically have mobile facial whiskers, and our study reveals the significant function of whiskers in the natural foraging behavior of a marine predator. We demonstrate the importance of field-based sensory studies incorporating multimodality to better understand how multiple sensory systems are complementary in shaping the foraging success of predators. National Academy of Sciences 2022-06-13 2022-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9231483/ /pubmed/35696561 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119502119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Adachi, Taiki
Naito, Yasuhiko
Robinson, Patrick W.
Costa, Daniel P.
Hückstädt, Luis A.
Holser, Rachel R.
Iwasaki, Wataru
Takahashi, Akinori
Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
title Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
title_full Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
title_fullStr Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
title_full_unstemmed Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
title_short Whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
title_sort whiskers as hydrodynamic prey sensors in foraging seals
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9231483/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35696561
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119502119
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