MAMMAL
LAB
A new approach to the solution of the linear mixing model for a single isotope Application to the case of an
opportunistic predator
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis reveals seasonal variation in the diet of leopard seals
BIOMARKERS - dietary analysis to reconstruct diet
STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS
FATTY ACID ANALYSIS
Vertical fatty acid composition in the blubber of leopard seals and the implications for dietary analysis
SCAT-ANALYSIS FOR MARINE MAMMALS
For marine mammals, a different approach, 6-D analysis of hairs found in scats using Mahalanobis distances, was more effective at discriminating between potential mammalian prey species compared with traditional scat-analysis approaches used for terrestrial mammals.
Identification of hairs found in leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) scats
Drawings by Alicia Guerrero
Influence of biological and ecological factors on hematological values in wild Little Penguins, Eudyptula minor
SERUM PROTEIN & HEMATOLOGY
Serum protein levels, identified by electrophoresis, correlated with subclinical disease and physiological variation in leopard seals.
HEAVY METALS
Biological markers (biomarkers) are invaluable and widely adopted in ecology, archaeology and anthropology. Serially sampling biomarkers along continuously-growing inert tissue, such as vibrissae, hair, nail, horn or baleen is an ideal method to capture changes in an individual’s diet, environment, climate, heath and stress. In species where metabolically-inert tissue grows in a progressive fashion the ability to account for time-specific information refines our ability to interpret biomarker data.
Drawing by Alicia Guerrero