The urban lives of green sea turtles: Insights into behavior in an industrialized habitat using an animal‐borne camera
The cryptic and aquatic life histories of sea turtles have made them a challenging group to directly observe, leaving significant knowledge gaps regarding social behavior and fine‐scale elements of habitat use. Using a custom‐designed animal‐borne camera, we observed previously undocumented behavior...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Ecology and evolution Vol. 14; no. 4; pp. e11282 - n/a |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
England
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
01-04-2024
John Wiley and Sons Inc Wiley |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | The cryptic and aquatic life histories of sea turtles have made them a challenging group to directly observe, leaving significant knowledge gaps regarding social behavior and fine‐scale elements of habitat use. Using a custom‐designed animal‐borne camera, we observed previously undocumented behaviors by green turtles (Chelonia mydas) at a foraging area in San Diego Bay, a highly urbanized ecosystem in California, USA. We deployed a suction‐cup‐attached pop‐off camera (manufactured by Customized Animal Tracking Solutions) on 11 turtles (mean straight carapace length = 84.0 ± 11.2 cm) for between 1 and 30.8 h. Video recordings, limited to sunlit hours, provided 73 h of total observation time between May 2022 and June 2023. We observed 32 conspecific interactions; we classified 18 as active, entailing clear social behaviors, as compared with 14 passive interactions representing brief, chance encounters. There was no evidence for agonistic interactions. The camera additionally revealed that green turtles consistently use metal structures within urban San Diego Bay. In seven instances, turtles exhibited rubbing behavior against metal structures, and we observed two examples of turtles congregating at these structures. High rates of intraspecific interaction exhibited relatively consistently among individuals provide a compelling case for sociality for green turtles in San Diego Bay, adding to a growing research base updating their historical label of “non‐social.” The frequent use of metal structures by the population, in particular the rubbing of exposed skin, has implications for behavioral adaptations to urban environments. Our study exemplifies the promise of technological advances (e.g., underwater and animal‐borne cameras) for updating natural history paradigms, even for well‐studied populations.
An animal‐borne camera was used to study a population of East Pacific green turtles. Seventy hours of video were recorded, providing insight into the behavioral and social habits of this population. |
|---|---|
| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 2045-7758 2045-7758 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/ece3.11282 |