Maternal and newborn life‐history traits during periods of contrasting population trends: implications for explaining the decline of harbour seals ( Phoca vitulina), on Sable Island

• Published in: Journal of Zoology
• Main Authors: Don Bowen, W., Ellis, Sara L., Iverson, Sara J., Boness, Daryl J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2003
• Subjects: Canada; North Beach; harbour seal; Phoca vitulina
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0952836903004047; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1017%2FS0952836903004047; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1017/S0952836903004047; https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1017/S0952836903004047

Abstract Annual censuses of the number of harbour seal Phoca vitulina pups born on Sable Island Canada showed an increasing trend during the 1980s, but a rapid decline through the 1990s from 625 pups in 1989 to only 32 by 1997. Weekly surveys of the North Beach of the island during the 1991–98 breed...