Katie Florko

So it's a really good study system to answer these ecological questions.

So, yeah, so I think that it's, you know, if a meal is really good,

No, it is a little bit more complicated than that.

So we find that seals are looking for these areas where there's both a lot of prey and really diverse species assemblages of prey.

So there's a bunch of archicod, there's capelin, there's sand lance, there's all of these different species.

So

You know, it makes sense that we're seeing that they're going into these areas, and at the same time, they're also avoiding the high-risk areas.

However, it's this trade-off that we found that was really interesting, where they would enter these high-risk areas if the prey was really diverse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, we haven't looked into the psychology of the seals per se.

Not yet, anyway.

I think it is a sentiment of their flexibility.

But, you know, there are certain conditions and contexts when they would enter those high prey areas.

And this is the thing that has been seen in other species where, you know, maybe if a seal or if an animal is in poor body condition, they're more willing to do riskier things for a meal.

Yeah, it's totally a similar concept.

And I think that the ecological term portfolio effect is taken from finance.

And so the idea is that a varied meal would provide more of a buffer.

Instead of just relying on an area where maybe one species is and that should be a good area to go, it really seems like they're going for areas that have this diversity that maybe is more of a buffer for if and when things are more abundant or less abundant, kind of that ebb and flow.

Yes, totally.