What should I eat? Experimental evidence for prey selection in grey seals

Gallon, S., Thompson, D. and Middlemas, S. J. (2017) What should I eat? Experimental evidence for prey selection in grey seals. Animal Behaviour, 123, pp. 35-41. (doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2016.09.012)

Abstract

Understanding the responses of predators, such as seals, to variations in prey availability is key to understanding their role in marine ecosystems. Individual variation in prey preference is likely to be important but we have little information on this aspect of predator behaviour. Operant conditioning techniques and an underwater feeding apparatus were used to test the prey species and size preferences of five captive grey seals, Halichoerus grypus, in a series of paired choice trials. The experimental procedure was designed to present simple foraging choices to remove as many potentially confounding variables as possible. Results suggest that individual grey seals exhibit prey preferences. When presented with different numbers of items of the same species, seals generally selected the larger number of prey items. When presented with choices between two species, seals apparently showed consistent preferences for particular species. However, the apparent species preferences may be simply explained in terms of size selection.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was funded by a Natural Environmental Research Council studentship with a Fisheries Research Services CASE and a Sea Mammal Research Unit Tim Waters scholarship to Susan Gallon.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gallon, Dr Susan
• Authors: Gallon, S., Thompson, D., and Middlemas, S. J.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Animal Behaviour
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0003-3472
• ISSN (Online): 1095-8282
• Published Online: 18 November 2016