Food of Weddell Seals at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

Dearborn, John H.

doi:10.2307/1377814

Cited by 83 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The first record of P. antarcticum in the diet of Weddell seals was given by DeWitt and Tyler (1960), who found 14 aduk fish in one seal from McMurdo Sound. Dearborn (1965) positively identified P. antarcticum from 4 of 36 Weddell seal stomachs with food remains, collected at McMurdo Sound during October-April 1958 and 1961. However, fish remains in 34 of these stomachs could not be identified.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Summer diet of Weddell Seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) in the eastern and southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Plötz

1986

Polar Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary. Stomach and intestine samples from 21 adultWeddell seals were used to study the diet of these seals from the eastern and southern Weddell Sea coast from January to February 1983 and 1985. Fish and Woyciechowski 1981). Quantitative data on food intake as well as data on size of dominant prey organisms taken by individual Weddell seals are sparse and urgently required for different areas and seasons, before more realistic assessments of food consumption can be made.This study is the first report on the summer diet of Weddell seals along the high Antarctic Weddell Sea coast. The eastern and southern parts of this area are characterized by both shallow and deep water zones with grounded or floating ice shelf masses and permanent eroding ice edges. During summer, when the fast ice cover breaks off close to the ice shelf edge, the resting sites of Weddell seals become reduced and the animals are compelled to occupy drifting floes or concentrate in the inlets, where remaining multiyear sea ice provides a permanent habitat. Due to the almost open waters, the hunting range and success of Weddell seals is not influenced by tile availability of breathing holes and tide cracks, but probably more by the distribution of sea ice and the distribution and abundance of dominant prey organisms along the ice shelf barrier during the short summer.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Summer diet of Weddell Seals (Leptonychotes weddelli) in the eastern and southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Plötz

1986

Polar Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Because Weddell seal colonies are frequently located in the vicinity of research stations and easily accessible via sea ice (e.g. Scott Base and McMurdo Station), scientists have investigated, among other things, the diving physiology, population dynamics, foraging behaviour and lactation energetics of Weddell seals (Stirling 1969;Testa 1994;Dearborn 1965;Eisert and Oftedal 2009;Ainley and Siniff 2009), making them probably the most intensively studied marine mammal in the world. By contrast, conducting research in pack ice is very difficult, and comparatively little is known about reproduction and general biology in the pack ice seals (Southwell et al 2003).…”

Section: Seals (Carnivora: Pinnipedia)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Antarctic Megafauna

Eisert¹

2015

Exploring the Last Continent

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The megafauna (Greek μεγα: great; Latin fauna: animal life) of Antarctica is defined by absence. Two classes of vertebrates, reptiles and amphibians, are missing from the continent and its surrounding waters, and Antarctica has lacked true land vertebrates since dinosaurs last roamed the continent in the late Cretaceous. The ocean is the foundation of all vertebrate life in Antarctica, and none of its native birds and mammals can survive permanently in the continent's frigid, white interior. Antarctic vertebrates are all classified as marine and ultimately derive their food from the sea. Unlike in much of the Arctic, the harsher climate of Antarctica does not allow for significant plant growth, and no vertebrate herbivores exist. Antarctica's long isolation from other landmasses has resulted in the absence of surface predators such as the polar fox Alopex lagopus or polar bear Ursus maritimus, an important distinction between Antarctic and Arctic habitats. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean present some of the most challenging environmental conditions on Earth, including extreme cold, wind, dryness, radical seasonal changes in photoperiod, and extensive ice cover. But Antarctica also offers tremendous opportunity because it is a continent free of terrestrial mammalian predators, and the Southern Ocean surrounding the Antarctic continent includes some of the most productive marine habitats in the world.

show abstract

“…Classically, the diet of the Weddell seal has been examined by stomach content analysis (Bertram, 1940;Dearborn, 1965;Plötz, 1986;Plötz et al, 1991), but lethal methods are no longer employed, and gastric lavage of adults requires extensive restraint or chemical immobilization. Scat analysis can provide information on those prey that have identifi able indigestible parts (Burns et al, 1998;Lake et al, 2003) or even residual prey DNA (Casper et al, 2007) in the scats.…”

Section: Monitoring Food Consumption During the Lactation Periodmentioning

confidence: 99%