Apparent decline in the harbour seal Phoca vitulina population near Hvaler, Norway, following an epizootic

• Published in: Ecography
• Main Author: Hedlund Markussen, Nina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1992
• Subjects: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Norway; harbour seal; Phoca vitulina
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1992.tb00014.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0587.1992.tb00014.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0587.1992.tb00014.x

From 1986‐90 we tagged 98 harbour seal pups at Hvaler, Norway Fifteen were recovered later the same year of which 10 were recovered in 1988, when the seal population was infected by a morbillivirus The epizootic in 1988 resulted in a population decline of c 75% Predicted birth weight did not vary significantly before and after the epizootic Newborn harbour seals have antibodies against the morbillivirus two years after the outbreak of the disease