Diet Analysis Marine Mammals

The regular diet of any marine mammal should consist of two or more fish species to help ensure a balanced diet.

Diet analysis marine mammals. Diet estimation in marine mammals relies on indirect methods including recovery of prey hard parts from stomachs and feces quantitative fatty acid sig nature analysis qfasa stable isotope mixing models and identification of prey dna in stomach contents and feces. Marine mammals form a diverse group of 129 species that rely on the ocean for their existence. The innovative process examines the unique chemical remnants of prey that are incorporated into the seal s. A variety of methods exist for quantifying the importance of prey in marine mammal.

Fecal scat analysis is a common cost effective and relatively non intrusive method for describing the diet of marine mammals andersen et al 2004 berg et al 2002 casper et al 2006 cottrell et al 1996 merrick et al 1997 pitcher 1980 tollit et al 2006. Oceanography and marine. Marine mammal research unit fisheries centre university of british columbia hut b 3 6248 biological sciences road vancouver british columbia v6t 1z4 canada correspondent. It is not recommended to feed fish that are threatened in the wild.

The harbor seal scats were collected under fisheries and oceans canada marine mammal research license mml 2011 10 and a university of british columbia animal care permit a11 0072. But traditional techniques of analyzing diet are imperfect. Diet analysis from scat via hard parts genetic sex determination as says can provide sex specific diet information in marine mammals wilson 2015. The level of dependence on the marine environment varies considerably with species.

Experimental evidence 9 species 13. While providing a greater taxonomic resolution of prey items than stable isotope or fatty acid analyses it is nearly im possible to morphologically identify hard parts to the species level. Despite the diversity in anatomy seen between groups improved foraging efficiency has been the main driver in their evolution. 2 2 diet analysis via metabarcoding and hard part analysis.

Large scale molecular diet analysis in a generalist marine mammal reveals male preference for prey of conservation concern september 2018 ecology and evolution 8 4. A review of methods of diet analysis in piscivorous marine mammals. Recently consortium researchers tested a model designed to determine the relative proportions of prey consumed by harbor seals. They are an informal group unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding.

Diet composition is commonly estimated by evaluating the relative.