ORIGINAL PAPER

• Main Authors: Simon D. Goldsworthy, Æ Mary-anne Lea, Christophe Guinet
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Kerguelen; Antarc*; Antarctic Fur Seals; Arctocephalus gazella
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.533.1238; http://www.cebc.cnrs.fr/publipdf/2004/GPB27.pdf

Abstract The efficacy of a new mass-transfer method for estimating milk intake was examined in Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) at Iles Kerguelen. Our method differed from previous mass-transfer approaches in that we estimated milk-mass transfer as the maternal mass lost (MML; kg) during an attendance bout, less the mass lost to metabolic maintenance (MMLE) over that time. MML was significantly related to pup mass-gain (PMG) and attendance bout duration (d days) as fol-lows: MML=1.106PMG+1.002d (r2=0.998). Based on this and previous studies, we estimated that the MMLE was 0.0285 kg kg1 day1 for lactating females; and we developed the following milk-mass transfer equation: MMLM=1.106PMG+1.002d0.0285MM d (where MM is maternal mass). Milk-mass intake was also