TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of freshwater discrimination ability in three species of sea kraits (Laticauda semifasciata, L. laticaudata and L. colubrina)
AU - Kidera, Noriko
AU - Mori, Akira
AU - Tu, Ming Chung
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments We acknowledge financial support from the Taiwan National Science Foundation Grant (NSC 100-2621-B-003-003-MY3) to Ming-Chung Tu. We are grateful to Iriomote Station of the Tropical Biosphere Research Center, and the University of the Ryukyus for providing a room for the experiment. We express our thanks to Tohru Naruse for allowing us to use the facility in his care, and to Motoshi Shinmori, Tomoyuki Namihira, Mineo Miyara, Tetsu Maekagawa, Choken Ishigaki and Katsuyuki Maedomari for their assistance in collecting samples in the field. The investigation was carried out within guidelines and approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use committees of National Taiwan Normal University.
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - Three species of amphibious sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) require drinking freshwater to regulate water balance. The extent of terrestriality is known to differ among them. Species with higher extent of terrestriality would drink freshwater accumulated on land, whereas less terrestrial species would rely totally on freshwater that runs into the sea. Consequently, we predicted that the latter species might have a better ability to follow the flow of freshwater or lower salinity water in the sea than the former. We investigated the freshwater discrimination ability of three sea krait species, using a Y-maze apparatus. We found that Laticauda semifasciata and Laticauda laticaudata, less terrestrial species, followed freshwater significantly more frequently than seawater, whereas Laticauda colubrina, more terrestrial species, unbiasedly selected freshwater and seawater. This result supports our prediction and suggests that less terrestrial sea kraits more efficiently access freshwater sources in the sea than highly terrestrial sea kraits. It is likely that behavioral rehydration systems vary among sea kraits in relation to their terrestrial tendency.
AB - Three species of amphibious sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) require drinking freshwater to regulate water balance. The extent of terrestriality is known to differ among them. Species with higher extent of terrestriality would drink freshwater accumulated on land, whereas less terrestrial species would rely totally on freshwater that runs into the sea. Consequently, we predicted that the latter species might have a better ability to follow the flow of freshwater or lower salinity water in the sea than the former. We investigated the freshwater discrimination ability of three sea krait species, using a Y-maze apparatus. We found that Laticauda semifasciata and Laticauda laticaudata, less terrestrial species, followed freshwater significantly more frequently than seawater, whereas Laticauda colubrina, more terrestrial species, unbiasedly selected freshwater and seawater. This result supports our prediction and suggests that less terrestrial sea kraits more efficiently access freshwater sources in the sea than highly terrestrial sea kraits. It is likely that behavioral rehydration systems vary among sea kraits in relation to their terrestrial tendency.
KW - Rehydration
KW - Salinity
KW - Sea snakes
KW - Terrestrial tendency
KW - Water balance
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U2 - 10.1007/s00359-012-0782-6
DO - 10.1007/s00359-012-0782-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 23224248
AN - SCOPUS:84874190005
SN - 0340-7594
VL - 199
SP - 191
EP - 195
JO - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
IS - 3
ER -