Prey handling time may differ among prey species however, in addition to time the quality of the prey may be a major selection determinant. Therefore the time invested in prey capture and prey handling is important when executing a foraging tactic or feeding technique. Bottlenose dolphins typically adhere to a ram-feeding strategy for prey capture followed by whole prey ingestion however, marine catfish skull morphology may pose a consumption hazard due to rigid spines that can puncture and migrate through soft tissue, prompting a prey handling technique for certain dolphins, facilitating consumption of the posterior portion of the fish without the head.Īnimal energetics concepts suggest wild animals will seek to maximize net energy gains per unit time spent foraging. Thirty-eight instances of significant trauma or death in dolphins attributed to ingesting whole marine catfish were documented in stranding records collected from the southeastern United States of America. felis) were examined to estimate the presumed total length of the catfish before decapitation. An examination of the severed catfish heads indicated interaction with dolphins, and fresh-caught whole hardhead catfish ( A. Photographic identification analysis confirms eight dolphins associated with severed catfish heads were present in three such sightings across an approximately 350 km expanse of coast between the Mississippi Sound and Saint Joseph Bay, FL. Recovered severed catfish heads were preserved and studied, whole marine catfish were collected and examined, and stranding network pathology reports were reviewed for references to injuries related to fish spines. A review was conducted of bottlenose dolphin visual survey data and dorsal fin photographs from sightings where severed catfish heads were observed. ![]() ![]() These observations prompted a multi-disciplinary approach to study the predator-prey relationship between bottlenose dolphins and marine catfish. Over the course of 50,167 sightings of bottlenose dolphin groups in Mississippi Sound and along the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico, severed catfish heads were found floating and exhibiting movements at the surface in close proximity to 13 dolphin groups that demonstrated feeding behavior. Wells, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, Writing – review & editing 2įew accounts describe predator-prey interactions between common bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus Montagu 1821) and marine catfish ( Ariopsis felis Linnaeus 1766, Bagre marinus Mitchill 1815). Mullin, Investigation, Resources, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, 1 and Randall S. Grace, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, 1 Nélio Barros, Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, 2 Jason Allen, Data curation, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, 2 Brian Balmer, Data curation, Investigation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing, 2, 3 Anna Panike, Data curation, Investigation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing, 4 Christina Toms, Data curation, Investigation, Writing – review & editing, 5 Keith D. Barry, Conceptualization, Investigation, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, 1 Carrie Sinclair, Data curation, Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, 1 Mark A. Ronje, Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, 1, * Kevin P.
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