Mass transfer from mothers to pups and mass recovery by mothers during the post-breeding foraging period in southern elephant seals ( Mirounga leonina ) at King George Island

Carlini, Alejandro R; Daneri, Gustavo Adolfo; Márquez, María Elena; Soave, Guillermo E.; Poljak, Sebastián

doi:10.1007/s003000050192

Cited by 33 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Leopard seal adults only were sampled. Mass for southern elephant seals was measured using the method described in Carlini and colleagues (). Briefly, this involved suspending sedated seals in a net stretcher from a load cell hanging scale attached to an aluminium tripod.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet and phylogeny shape the gut microbiota of Antarctic seals: a comparison of wild and captive animals

Nelson

Rogers

Carlini

et al. 2012

Environmental Microbiology

209

218

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The gut microbiota of mammals underpins the metabolic capacity and health of the host. Our understanding of what influences the composition of this community has been limited primarily to evidence from captive and terrestrial mammals. Therefore, the gut microbiota of southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina, and leopard seals, Hydrurga leptonyx, inhabiting Antarctica were compared with captive leopard seals. Each seal exhibited a gut microbiota dominated by four phyla: Firmicutes (41.5 ± 4.0%), Fusobacteria (25.6 ± 3.9%), Proteobacteria (17.0 ± 3.2%) and Bacteroidetes (14.1 ± 1.7%). Species, age, sex and captivity were strong drivers of the composition of the gut microbiota, which can be attributed to differences in diet, gut length and physiology and social interactions. Differences in particular prey items consumed by seal species could contribute to the observed differences in the gut microbiota. The longer gut of the southern elephant seal provides a habitat reduced in available oxygen and more suitable to members of the phyla Bacteroidetes compared with other hosts. Among wild seals, 16 'core' bacterial community members were present in the gut of at least 50% of individuals. As identified between southern elephant seal mother-pup pairs, 'core' members are passed on via vertical transmission from a young age and persist through to adulthood. Our study suggests that these hosts have co-evolved with their gut microbiota and core members may provide some benefit to the host, such as developing the immune system. Further evidence of their strong evolutionary history is provided with the presence of 18 shared 'core' members in the gut microbiota of related seals living in the Arctic. The influence of diet and other factors, particularly in captivity, influences the composition of the community considerably. This study suggests that the gut microbiota has co-evolved with wild mammals as is evident in the shared presence of 'core' members.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet and phylogeny shape the gut microbiota of Antarctic seals: a comparison of wild and captive animals

Nelson

Rogers

Carlini

et al. 2012

Environmental Microbiology

209

218

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show abstract

“…Our continuing long term mark-recapture research (28 years) (de Bruyn & Bester 2012) has provided a unique opportunity to explore known female age in combination with Southern elephant seal pup survival is largely influenced by condition at weaning, both at Macquarie Island (McMahon et al 1999;2000) and Marion Island (MI) (McMahon et al 2003), with larger pups having a greater chance of survival (McMahon et al 2000). In turn weaning mass is influenced by maternal mass (Carlini et al 1997), which is influenced by food availability and foraging behaviour, across the Southern Ocean (Biuw et al 2007). Southern elephant seals only haul out for short periods in the terrestrial environment to breed, moult and over winter (Kirkman et al 2003;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-related reproductive variation in a wild marine mammal population

2013

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Life history theory predicts a change in reproduction success with age as energy resources are limited and must be allocated effectively to maximise reproduction and survival. In this study we use three reproductive performance measures; maternal expenditure, offspring weaning mass and first year survival to investigate the role maternal age plays in successful reproduction. Long-term uninterrupted life history data available for Marion Island's southern elephant seals and mass change estimates from photogrammetry data allow for assessment of age related reproduction performance and trade-offs. Known-aged adult females were photographed for photogrammetric mass estimation (n=29) and their pups weighed at weaning during the 2009 breeding season. Maternal age and proportional mass loss positively influenced pup weaning mass. In turn first year pup return rates (as a proxy for survival) were assessed through the intensive mark-recapture program.Pup survival increased with female age and weaning mass. Pups of young females aged 3 to 6 years have a lower 1 st year survival probability compared to pups of older and larger females.

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“…Weddell seal females certainly lose a large amount of body mass: for example, females that we studied in 2006 and 2007 lost 40% of their two-day postpartum mass during about 40 days lactation (Figure 1). The daily mass loss of 1.0% of initial mass is lower than values of 1.5%-3.4% for fasting and lactating females of the northern elephant seal, southern elephant seal, land-breeding gray seal, and hooded seal (Costa et al, 1986;Carlini et al, 1997;Mellish et al, 1999aMellish et al, , 1999b, but Weddell seal lactation is so prolonged that overall mass loss (42%) is equal to or greater than that in the other species (14%-39%). If mass loss is standardized to a lactation length of 42 days, initial mass predicts 66% of the variation in mass loss, indicating that large females lose more mass than small females (Figure 2).…”

Section: Mass Changes During Weddell Seal Lactationmentioning

confidence: 77%

Capital Expenditure and Income (Foraging) during Pinniped Lactation: The Example of the Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddellii)

Eisert¹,

Oftedal²

2009

Smithsonian at the Poles : Contributions to International Polar Year Science

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Mass transfer from mothers to pups and mass recovery by mothers during the post-breeding foraging period in southern elephant seals ( Mirounga leonina ) at King George Island

Cited by 33 publications

References 13 publications

Diet and phylogeny shape the gut microbiota of Antarctic seals: a comparison of wild and captive animals

Diet and phylogeny shape the gut microbiota of Antarctic seals: a comparison of wild and captive animals

Age-related reproductive variation in a wild marine mammal population

Capital Expenditure and Income (Foraging) during Pinniped Lactation: The Example of the Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddellii)

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