Abstract
Harbor seals commute between haul-out places and feeding grounds close to the shore or in the open ocean, which is considered a low structured environment, at first sight not providing many cues for orientation/navigation. Nevertheless, seals are well-oriented. For returning to a specific location, seals may use both external and internal cues to, for example, perform path integration requiring the integration of distances traveled and angles steered. We herein assessed the seal’s ability to estimate distances, previously swum or unknown, in reproduction tasks. Reproduction tasks refer to an experimental paradigm in which the experimental animal is required to swim a specific distance first and subsequently reproduce this distance, with visual cues present or absent. The seal was able to estimate and then reproduce distances (0.5–18.5 m) with the smallest error below 10% of the actual distance, and its precision was higher with distances repeatedly swum compared to its performance with unfamiliar distances. In the absence of visual cues, the seal’s performance slightly dropped; however, it was still able to perform the task with an error of 21%. In conclusion, distance estimation may help seals to navigate precisely towards their goals, even if, for example, visual information is not available.
Highlights
Pinnipeds, such as elephant seals, can keep a straight course even when submerged, most likely based on visual information obtained at the water surface; the envisaged direction is even maintained after a spiraling descend [5]
The learning of EPs could have influenced the performance of the animal during the testing and acquisition phases, we drastically reduced this possibility by varying the intervals along the belt, but could not influence its performance in the first trial in reversed swimming direction, as the animal had no previous memory of the EP
We were able to show that a marine mammal can learn to use distance information in reproduction tasks
Summary
Research on humpback whales has revealed the animals’ ability to keep a constant course with an accuracy of less than one degree over hundreds of kilometers traveled over many days [1] Pinnipeds, such as elephant seals, can keep a straight course even when submerged, most likely based on visual information obtained at the water surface; the envisaged direction is even maintained after a spiraling descend [5]. In the marine environment, these cues can be impaired or absent due to environmental factors, such as turbidity [15], bad weather conditions or anthropogenic activities Under these conditions, a seal could rely on navigation/orientation mechanisms that can be solely based on idiothetic cues, defined as cues derived from
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