I’ve never thought about underwater animal tracking, but this picture tells the tale of a sturgeon foraging expedition. The image is from a paper I recently came across about sturgeon feeding behavior. The authors document the charming propensity of sturgeon to leave their snout and barbel prints behind in the mud where they’ve been feeding. The authors took this as an opportunity to document how the sturgeon tracks were distributed in relation to physical features and to the distribution of the creatures in the mud that the sturgeon are nosing around for.
The anatomy of a sturgeon face:
And here’s a zoomable shot of that adorable snout-print:
Here’s a link to the article as well:
Significance of Atlantic Sturgeon feeding excavations, St. Mary’s Point, Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick