Accelerometers can measure total and activity-specific energy expenditure in free-ranging marine mammals only if linked to time-activity budgets

Energy expenditure is an important component of foraging ecology, but is extremely difficult to estimate in free-ranging animals and depends on how animals partition their time between different activities during foraging. Acceleration data have emerged as a new way to determine energy expenditure at a fine scale but this needs to be tested and validated in wild animals.
This study investigated whether vectorial dynamic body acceleration (VeDBA) could accurately predict the energy expended by marine predators during a full foraging trip. We also aimed to determine whether the accuracy of predictions of energy expenditure derived from acceleration increased when partitioned by different types of at-sea activities (i.e. diving, transiting, resting and surface activities).
To do so, we equipped 20 lactating northern (Callorhinus ursinus) and 20 lactating Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) with GPS, time-depth recorders and tri-axial accelerometers and obtained estimates of field...