Do crabeater seals forage cooperatively?

Crabeater seals are abundant pack-ice predators that feed almost exclusively on krill. They have a circumpolar distribution and are generally sighted hauled out on ice floes alone or in pairs. Here we report our observations of a sighting of 150-200 crabeater seals, which were synchronised in their diving and surfacing behaviour, along with a summary of similar observations from western Antarctica of large groups of crabeater seals in synchronous dive cycles. We report on the low frequency of sightings of such groups during Antarctic pack-ice seal surveys in eastern (Greater) Antarctica. We examine plausible hypotheses to explain these observations, and suggest this behaviour is likely to represent some form of cooperative foraging behaviour, whereby a net advantage in individual energy intake rates is conferred to each seal. Current research on crabeater seal foraging using satellite-linked dive recorders is unlikely to provide sufficiently fine-scale data to examine this hypothesis. Nor will this approach indicate if a seal is foraging with conspecifics. The use of remote or animal-borne camera systems is more likely to provide an insight into fine-scale foraging tactics, as well as the possible, occasional use of cooperative foraging strategies. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.