Robinson, Nathan J., Doñate‐Ordóñez, Ruth, Chatzievangelou, Damianos, Brooks, Annabelle M.L., Cuffley, Jack, Fields, Candace Y.A., Hoefer, Sebastian, Pinou, Theodora, Smith, Alexander, and Mills, Sophie (2024) Short‐Term Effects of Attaching Animal‐Borne Devices on the Behavior of Juvenile Green Turtles. Ecology and Evolution, 14. e70707.

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Abstract

The use of animal-borne devices (= biologgers) has revolutionized the study of marine megafauna, yet there remains a paucity of data concerning the behavioral and physiological impacts of biologger attachment and retention. Here, we used animal-borne cameras to characterize the behavior and dive duration of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in The Bahamas for up to 210 min after biologger deployment (n = 58). For a “control,” we used unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect comparable data from nonhandled green turtles (n = 25) in the same habitats. Animal-borne footage revealed that immediately after release turtles spent 70%–80% of their time swimming with a mean dive duration of 45.3 ± 34.3 s (SD). Over time, the percentage of time spent swimming decreased alongside an increase in dive duration until reaching a plateau around 90 min. However, the “control” UAV data for time spent swimming and dive durations were more comparable to the behaviors observed immediately after biologger deployment than during the plateau. We observed no significant differences in dive durations based on body size, and differences in behaviors based on body size were also minimal. We conclude that the effects of handling stress and biologger attachment on the behavior and dive duration of juvenile green turtles are evident up to 90 min postdeployment. After that, it is possible that either: (1) the effects of biologger deployment and retention are negligible, but UAVs may produce biased data that overestimates the proportion of time turtles typically spend swimming or (2) longer durations (> 210 min) are necessary for turtle behaviors to return to nonhandled levels and UAVs accurately represent the proportion of time turtles typically spend swimming. Answering this question, alongside further research into the physiological and behavioral implications of handling stress and biologger attachment, is essential to improve ethical biologging guidelines for sea turtles.

Item ID:	84853
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2045-7758
Copyright Information:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2024 The Author(s). Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Date Deposited:	11 Mar 2025 23:25
FoR Codes:	31 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 3103 Ecology > 310305 Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) @ 100%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences @ 100%
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