Diving and resting oxygen consumption in Southern sea lion (Otaria flavescens) females

RODRÍGUEZ, D; DASSIS, M; CALKINS, D; DAVIS, RW

Cape Town

Congreso; 17th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals; 2007

Society for Marine Mammalogy

We measured diving and resting oxygen consumption rate in two Southern sea lion (SSL) adult females (99-110 kg) trained to swim submerged in an elongate tank (50 m long, 5 m wide, 2 m deep) at Mundo Marino Aquarium (Argentina). Measurements were made using a gas respirometry open-circuit connected to a plexiglas dome, and under post-absortive conditions (more than 14 hs from last meal). Dive duration (range= 24-64 sec), distance covered (range=130-260 m) and stroke frequency per dive (range=10-43) were recorded. Sea lions breathed inside the dome for prolonged periods (7-10 min) immediately after each dive, or stayed submerged motionless for resting consumption measurements. The percentage of oxygen in the expired air was monitored continuously and recorded once per second. Mean resting oxygen consumption rate was 8.9 ± 0.7 (n=18) and 9.2 ± 0.9 (n=14) ml O2/min/kg for SSLs 1 and 2 respectively, with no significantly differences between them (p