Two decades of three-dimensional movement data from adult female northern elephant seals
Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) have been integral to the development and progress of biologging technology and movement data analysis, which continue to improve our understanding of this and other species. Adult female elephant seals at Año Nuevo Reserve and other colonies along the west coast of North America were tracked annually from 2004 to 2020, resulting in a total of 653 instrument deployments. This paper outlines the compilation and curation process of these high-resolution diving and location data, now accessible in two Dryad repositories. The code used for data processing alongside the corresponding workflow is available through GitHub and Zenodo. This data set represents 3,844,927 dives and 596,815 locations collected from 475 individual seals with 178 repeat samplings over 17 years. We anticipate that these data will stimulate further analysis and investigation into elephant seal biology and aid in developing new analytical approaches for large marine predators.
Authors
- Jessica M. Kendall-Bar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4758-1386)
- Chandra Goetsch
- Birgitte I. McDonald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5028-066X)
- Sarah S. Kienle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8565-2870)
- Patricia A. Morris
- Juan Pablo Gallo‐Reynoso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1156-6037)
- Taiki Adachi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8395-4245)
- Patrick W. Robinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3957-8347)
- Jennifer L. Maresh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4412-772X)
- Daniel P. Costa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0233-5782)
- Luis A. Hückstädt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2453-7350)
- Michael S. Tift (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0563-0509)
- Stella Villegas‐Amtmann
- Yann Tremblay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4653-9269)
- Theresa R. Keates (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4833-323X)
- Akinori Takahashi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9868-0408)
- Samantha E. Simmons (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0326-6990)
- Cory D. Champagne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3938-4462)
- Arina B. Favilla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6370-0499)
- Melinda A. Fowler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0193-2945)
- Sarah H. Peterson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2773-3901)
- Sara M. Maxwell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4425-9378)
- Jason L. Hassrick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2650-3901)
- Ken Yoda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8346-3291)
- Rachel R. Holser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8668-3839)
- Daniel E. Crocker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7940-8011)
- Elizabeth A. McHuron (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3147-2628)
- Logan J. Pallin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8024-9663)
- Roxanne S. Beltran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8520-1105)
- Carey E. Kuhn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6835-9744)
- Yasuhiko Naito (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5413-7032)
- Nicole M. Teuschel
Institutions
- Northeastern University (US)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- University of North Carolina Wilmington (US)
- Baylor University (US)
- Sonoma State University (US)
- West Chester University (US)
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- National Institute of Polar Research (JP)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo (MX)
- Jones Institute (US)
- NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Alaska Fisheries Science Center (US)
- Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (US)
- University of Washington Bothell (US)
- NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (US)
- Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites (US)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- San Jose State University (US)
- Nagoya University (JP)
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Data
- Published
- 2024-12-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-04084-4
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Marine animal studies overview
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.84
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Office of Naval Research