Swimming by sea otters: adaptations for low energetic cost locomotion

@article{Williams1989SwimmingBS,  title={Swimming by sea otters: adaptations for low energetic cost locomotion},  author={Terrie M. Williams},  journal={Journal of Comparative Physiology A},  year={1989},  volume={164},  pages={815-824},  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:1926452}}
Correlations between aquatic behavior, morphological specialization, and swimming energetics indicate that the development of swimming in mustelids involved transitions from fore-paw to hindpaw propulsion, and from surface to submerged swimming.

94 Citations

Diving and foraging energetics of the smallest marine mammal, the sea otter (Enhydra lutris)

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The results demonstrate that foreflipper propulsion is a highly efficient and comparatively inexpensive method of locomotion in aquatic mammals.

Locomotion in the North American mink, a semi-aquatic mammal. I. Swimming energetics and body drag.

Oxygen consumption during surface swimming and total body drag were investigated in the North American mink, Mustela vision Schreber, and a streamlined body shape, characteristic of many mustelids, aided in reducing drag at high speeds.

Aerobic Energetics of Surface Swimming in the Muskrat Ondatra zibethicus

The surface swimming of muskrats was studied by forcing individual animals to swim against a constant velocity water current, ranging from 0.2 to 0.75 m/s, in a recirculating water channel to monitor oxygen consumption as a measure of the aerobic power input.

Swimming Metabolism of Yearling and Adult Harbor Seals Phoca vitulina

The swimming metabolism of yearling and adult harbor seals was measured by indirect calorimetry in a flow channel at speeds ranging from 0.5 to 1.4 m·s−1 and the minimum cost of transport was less than for other semiaquatic birds and mammals but 3–4 × the predicted value for salmonid fish of equivalent size at 25 C.

The Respiratory Metabolism and Swimming Performance of Young Sockeye Salmon

Rate of replacement of oxygen debt following fatigue was determined by tracing the return to a resting state of metabolism, and confirmed by re-tests at fatigue velocities, and in most instances the rate declined logarithmically with time.

The energetics of ‘flying’ and ‘paddling’ in water: locomotion in penguins and ducks

In ducks and penguins, increase in swimming speed was associated with modulation of both limb frequency and stride length, and sub-surface swimming in penguins shows energy demands lower than for any other swimming endotherm.

Swimming Performance and Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Harbor Seals Phoca vitulina

From calculations, body drag during gliding phases may more than double during active swimming by seals and influences the swimming performance of these animals.

Locomotory patterns and external morphology of the river otter, sea otter, and harp seal (Mammalia).

There is an increased tendency from Lutra to Enhydra to Pagophilus toward enlarged highly specialized feet, approximating a perfect lunate border, and Tail surface area decreases in the above order.

Energetics and mechanics of terrestrial locomotion. I. Metabolic energy consumption as a function of speed and body size in birds and mammals.

This series of four papers investigates the link between the energetics and the mechanics of terrestrial locomotion using data from 62 avian and mammalian species to formulate a new allometric equation relating mass-specific rates of oxygen consumed during locomotion at a constant speed to speed and body mass.
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