Data from: Dynamic body acceleration as a proxy to predict the cost of locomotion in bottlenose dolphins

Estimates of the energetic costs of locomotion (COL) at different activity
levels are necessary to answer fundamental eco-physiological questions and
to understand the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance to marine mammals.
We combined estimates of energetic costs derived from breath-by-breath
respirometry with measurements of overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA)
from biologging tags to validate ODBA as a proxy for COL in trained common
bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). We measured resting metabolic
rate (RMR); mean individual RMR was 0.71–1.42 times that of a similarly
sized terrestrial mammal and agreed with past measurements that used
breath-by-breath and flow-through respirometry. We also measured energy
expenditure during submerged swim trials, at primarily moderate exercise
levels. We subtracted RMR to obtain COL, and normalized COL by body size
to incorporate individual swimming efficiencies. We found both
mass-specific energy expenditure and mass-specific COL were linearly
related with ODBA. Measurements of activity level and cost of transport
(the energy required to move a given distance) improve understanding of
the COL in marine mammals. The strength of the correlation between ODBA
and COL varied among individuals, but the overall relationship can be used
at a broad scale to estimate the energetic costs of disturbance and daily
locomotion costs to build energy budgets, and investigate the costs of
diving in free-ranging animals where bio-logging data are available. We
propose that a similar approach could be applied to other cetacean
species.