Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population.
The harbour seal population in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, has reduced by 65% between 2001 and 2010. The cause(s) of this decline are unknown but must affect the demographic parameters of the population. Here, satellite telemetry data were used to test the hypothesis that increased pup...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b67b4267c7734f858fecddf56523db2f 2023-05-15T16:33:34+02:00 Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. Nora Hanson Dave Thompson Callan Duck Simon Moss Mike Lonergan 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080727 https://doaj.org/article/b67b4267c7734f858fecddf56523db2f EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3842331?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080727 https://doaj.org/article/b67b4267c7734f858fecddf56523db2f PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 11, p e80727 (2013) Medicine R Science Q article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080727 2022-12-30T23:19:14Z The harbour seal population in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, has reduced by 65% between 2001 and 2010. The cause(s) of this decline are unknown but must affect the demographic parameters of the population. Here, satellite telemetry data were used to test the hypothesis that increased pup mortality could be a primary driver of the decline in Orkney. Pup mortality and tag failure parameters were estimated from the duration of operation of satellite tags deployed on harbour seal pups from the Orkney population (n = 24) and from another population on the west coast of Scotland (n = 24) where abundance was stable. Survival probabilities from both populations were best represented by a common gamma distribution and were not different from one another, suggesting that increased pup mortality is unlikely to be the primary agent in the Orkney population decline. The estimated probability of surviving to 6 months was 0.390 (95% CI 0.297 - 0.648) and tag failure was represented by a Gaussian distribution, with estimated mean 270 (95% CI = 198 - 288) and s.d. 21 (95% CI = 1 - 66) days. These results suggest that adult survival is the most likely proximate cause of the decline. They also demonstrate a novel technique for attaining age-specific mortality rates from telemetry data. Article in Journal/Newspaper harbour seal Phoca vitulina Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles PLoS ONE 8 11 e80727 |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Nora Hanson Dave Thompson Callan Duck Simon Moss Mike Lonergan Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
The harbour seal population in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, has reduced by 65% between 2001 and 2010. The cause(s) of this decline are unknown but must affect the demographic parameters of the population. Here, satellite telemetry data were used to test the hypothesis that increased pup mortality could be a primary driver of the decline in Orkney. Pup mortality and tag failure parameters were estimated from the duration of operation of satellite tags deployed on harbour seal pups from the Orkney population (n = 24) and from another population on the west coast of Scotland (n = 24) where abundance was stable. Survival probabilities from both populations were best represented by a common gamma distribution and were not different from one another, suggesting that increased pup mortality is unlikely to be the primary agent in the Orkney population decline. The estimated probability of surviving to 6 months was 0.390 (95% CI 0.297 - 0.648) and tag failure was represented by a Gaussian distribution, with estimated mean 270 (95% CI = 198 - 288) and s.d. 21 (95% CI = 1 - 66) days. These results suggest that adult survival is the most likely proximate cause of the decline. They also demonstrate a novel technique for attaining age-specific mortality rates from telemetry data. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nora Hanson Dave Thompson Callan Duck Simon Moss Mike Lonergan |
author_facet |
Nora Hanson Dave Thompson Callan Duck Simon Moss Mike Lonergan |
author_sort |
Nora Hanson |
title |
Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. |
title_short |
Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. |
title_full |
Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. |
title_fullStr |
Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. |
title_sort |
pup mortality in a rapidly declining harbour seal (phoca vitulina) population. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080727 https://doaj.org/article/b67b4267c7734f858fecddf56523db2f |
genre |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
genre_facet |
harbour seal Phoca vitulina |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 8, Iss 11, p e80727 (2013) |
op_relation |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3842331?pdf=render https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080727 https://doaj.org/article/b67b4267c7734f858fecddf56523db2f |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0080727 |
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PLoS ONE |
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8 |
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11 |
container_start_page |
e80727 |
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1766023257375375360 |