Behavioral and physiological adaptations of gray and Greenland seals to diving

Abstract

172 Behavioral characteristics and functional mechanisms of physiological systems of various marine mammals have been a focus of researchers’ attention for several decades [1‐4]. The interest in these issues is determined by unique adaptive capacities of the animals to a wide range of temperatures and pressures and their ability to remain at a considerable depth under water for a long time. At the same time, our knowledge on the physiology of marine mammals is as little as 5‐10% of that for terrestrial mammals, according to Yablokov’s [5] estimation. We studied some behavioral and physiological characteristics of gray ( Halichoerus grypus Fabricius, 1791) and Greenland ( Pagophilus groenlandica Erxleben, 1777) seals aged from one to eight years. The seals were kept in net enclosures in a lake connecting with the sea during the tidal cycle at the Experimental