ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2023
Large sensory volumes enable Southern elephant seals to exploit sparse deep-sea prey.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deep-sea ascending predation by king penguin and its prey reaction observed by animal-borne video camera.Ecology · 2025Article
- Article
- Beneath the Antarctic sea-ice: Fine-scale analysis of Weddell seal (Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The ability of echolocating toothed whales to detect and classify prey at long ranges enables efficient searching and stalking of sparse prey in these time-limited dives. However, nonecholocating deep-diving seals such as elephant seals appear to have much less sensory advantage over their prey. Both elephant seals and their prey rely on visual and hydrodynamic cues that may be detectable only at short ranges in the deep ocean, leading us to hypothesize that elephant seals must adopt a less efficient reactive mode of hunting that requires high prey densities. To test that hypothesis, we deployed high-resolution sonar and movement tags on 25 females to record simultaneous predator and prey behavior during foraging interactions. We demonstrate that elephant seals have a sensory advantage over their prey that allows them to potentially detect prey 5 to 10 s before striking. The corresponding prey detection ranges of 7 to 17 m enable stealthy approaches and prey-specific capture tactics. In comparison, prey react at a median range of 0.7 m, close to the neck extension range of striking elephant seals. Estimated search swathes of 150 to 900 m
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