Cardiorespiratory pattern of rest-associated apnea in a Weddell seal: a case study at an ice hole in Antarctica

Seals are known to be periodic breathers with eupneic and apneic phases at rest. We video-recorded a resting Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) that appeared head up from an ice hole in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. From the video recorded, the duration of each eupneic and apneic phase was extracted, and heart rate in apneic phase was obtained by counting ripples of the sea surface around the neck of a seal. The results indicated that the distribution of instantaneous heart rate was bimodal. In addition, the higher the apneic heart rate, the shorter the apneic duration as well as the combination of apneic duration and successive eupneic duration (A–E duration). From these analyses, we characterized the periodic breathing of a resting Weddell seal.