New
research concerning the leopard seal has revealed that not only is it
well-adapted to tackle bigger prey such as penguins, it is also
extremely efficient at catching tinier creatures like krill.
This is especially unusual because of how different the two feeding
styles are - it would be expected that an animal would sacrifice one
style to specialize in the other. This "dual specialist" style
helps
explain why leopard seals are so successful. While it was generally
accepted that these seals used their trident-shaped postcanine teeth to
"sieve" the water for krill, but this behaviour had never actually been
observed.
To confirm this idea an experiment was devised with
two captive leopard seals, Casey and Sabine. They were presented with
four small fish sticking headfirst out of an underwater plastic box.
Using their thick lips to create suction, Casey and Sabine repeatedly
sucked fish into their mouth. As predicted the postcanines held prey in
place when the water was expelled. The experiment was repeated with
California sea lions (who lack these trident-shaped interlocking teeth)
who failed the task - prey was frequently expelled with the water.
This result can tell us more about the feeding habits of prehistoric
whales such as Janjucetus, who possessed similar teeth to the leopard
seal. But the researchers also want to observe this behaviour in wild
leopard seals. “A trip down to the ice is in order,” says Hocking, one
of the authors of the paper.
Photo credit: David Rootes.
http://www.nature.com/news/
For this who wish to read the paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/
New
research concerning the leopard seal has revealed that not only is it
well-adapted to tackle bigger prey such as penguins, it is also
extremely efficient at catching tinier creatures like krill.
This is especially unusual because of how different the two feeding styles are - it would be expected that an animal would sacrifice one style to specialize in the other. This "dual specialist" style
This is especially unusual because of how different the two feeding styles are - it would be expected that an animal would sacrifice one style to specialize in the other. This "dual specialist" style
helps
explain why leopard seals are so successful. While it was generally
accepted that these seals used their trident-shaped postcanine teeth to
"sieve" the water for krill, but this behaviour had never actually been
observed.
To confirm this idea an experiment was devised with two captive leopard seals, Casey and Sabine. They were presented with four small fish sticking headfirst out of an underwater plastic box. Using their thick lips to create suction, Casey and Sabine repeatedly sucked fish into their mouth. As predicted the postcanines held prey in place when the water was expelled. The experiment was repeated with California sea lions (who lack these trident-shaped interlocking teeth) who failed the task - prey was frequently expelled with the water.
This result can tell us more about the feeding habits of prehistoric whales such as Janjucetus, who possessed similar teeth to the leopard seal. But the researchers also want to observe this behaviour in wild leopard seals. “A trip down to the ice is in order,” says Hocking, one of the authors of the paper.
Photo credit: David Rootes.
http://www.nature.com/news/
For this who wish to read the paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/
To confirm this idea an experiment was devised with two captive leopard seals, Casey and Sabine. They were presented with four small fish sticking headfirst out of an underwater plastic box. Using their thick lips to create suction, Casey and Sabine repeatedly sucked fish into their mouth. As predicted the postcanines held prey in place when the water was expelled. The experiment was repeated with California sea lions (who lack these trident-shaped interlocking teeth) who failed the task - prey was frequently expelled with the water.
This result can tell us more about the feeding habits of prehistoric whales such as Janjucetus, who possessed similar teeth to the leopard seal. But the researchers also want to observe this behaviour in wild leopard seals. “A trip down to the ice is in order,” says Hocking, one of the authors of the paper.
Photo credit: David Rootes.
http://www.nature.com/news/
For this who wish to read the paper:
http://www.springerlink.com/
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