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Possible food caching and defence in the Weddell seal: observations from McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2005

S.L. KIM
Affiliation:
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, 8272 Moss Landing Rd, Moss Landing, CA 95062, USAskim@mlml.calstate.edu
K. CONLAN
Affiliation:
Canadian Museum of Nature, P.O. Box 3443, Station D, Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4, Canada
D.P. MALONE
Affiliation:
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, 8272 Moss Landing Rd, Moss Landing, CA 95062, USAskim@mlml.calstate.edu
C.V. LEWIS
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley, Dept. of Integrative Biology, 3060 VLSB #3140, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140, USA

Extract

On the basis of observations of Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii Lesson) made in the course of studying shallow-water benthic communities in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, we suggest that caching and/or defence of uneaten food may be a strategy practiced by this animal. Such a phenomenon is uncommon but taxonomically widespread among vertebrates. Depending on circumstances, it is termed hoarding, caching, or storage and may be short- or long-term, include defence of the resource, or have other variable expressions, with the common threads being deferred consumption and deterrence of consumption by others (Vanderwall 1990). Many vertebrate taxa exhibit hoarding behaviour, including rodents (e.g. Sciuridae), carnivores (e.g. Canidae, Felinidae) and birds (e.g. Corvidae, Picidae). No form of food caching, to our knowledge, has ever been reported in a wild pinniped.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 2005

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