Southern Elephant Seals of Sea Lion Island

• Main Author: Simona Sanvito
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Baja; Lion Island; Antarc*; Elephant Seal; Elephant Seals; Southern Elephant Seal; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.547.7999; http://www.eleseal.org/pdf_lay/book_2004.pdf

Please visit the project website, www.eleseal.org, for updates. The elephant seals: introduction to the genus The genus Mirounga comprises two species, the southern elephant seal (M. leonina) and the northern (M. angustirostris). Northern elephant seals breed in California and Baja California. They were hunted almost to extinction during the 19th century, but after the introduction of protection laws in the United States and Mexico the species recovered at fast rate, and it is currently expanding outside its previous breeding range. The two species of the genus are very similar: external appearance, behaviour at sea, movement on land, gross traits of mating system and reproductive behaviour. The first difference is size, with the southern species much larger. In northern elephant seals maximum weight is about 2300 kg for males versus 3700 kg for southern, while females are more similar. On the contrary, secondary sexual traits are more developed in the northern species: the trunk is longer, and the neck and chest shield is more developed. The two species have similar breeding cycle, but they breed at different time of the year (January-February in the northern species, September-November in the southern). Southern elephant seals have a circum-antarctic distribution, with populations grouped in three main stocks (South