Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females.
Climate change, together with increasing human activity, poses a threat to the breeding success of endangered landlocked ringed seals (Phoca hispida saimensis). In this study, we estimated the spatial ecology of Saimaa ringed seals during the breeding season in the ice-covered period of December-Apr...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f776d7f5d7024f02beb7c60c234a5fc6 2023-05-15T17:58:45+02:00 Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. Marja Niemi Lauri Liukkonen Meeri Koivuniemi Miina Auttila Anni Rautio Mervi Kunnasranta 2019-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 https://doaj.org/article/f776d7f5d7024f02beb7c60c234a5fc6 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 https://doaj.org/article/f776d7f5d7024f02beb7c60c234a5fc6 PLoS ONE, Vol 14, Iss 1, p e0210266 (2019) Medicine R Science Q article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 2022-12-31T11:16:46Z Climate change, together with increasing human activity, poses a threat to the breeding success of endangered landlocked ringed seals (Phoca hispida saimensis). In this study, we estimated the spatial ecology of Saimaa ringed seals during the breeding season in the ice-covered period of December-April. The telemetry data on tagged seals (n = 20), with a total of 25 separate tracking periods and birth lair locations (n = 59) of non-tagged seals, were studied to estimate the movement ecology and breeding density. The movements of the ringed seals were more restricted during the ice-covered season; the total home range size (average 7.4 km2) in winter was 13 times smaller than that in summer. Individual tagged seals occupied an average of 5 ± 3 SD subnivean haul outs (snow lairs or ice cavities), and the mean distance between the haul outs was 1.6 ± 1.1 SD km (range 0.2-5.9 km). Moreover, our data indicated that ringed seal females likely exhibited breeding time avoidance of each other's core areas, which may indicate some degree of territoriality. This was supported by the findings that the core areas (mean 1.2 km2) of tagged adult females (n = 9), did not overlap with each other. Also data on non-tagged seals showed that females did not give birth to pups within the core area radius of other parturient females. This study, together with earlier findings on the home ranges of nursed pups and perinatal mortality rates, has implications into land usage planning in Lake Saimaa by highlighting the need of undisturbed area between seal lairs and anthropogenic disturbances. Article in Journal/Newspaper Phoca hispida ringed seal Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Lair ENVELOPE(-61.040,-61.040,-62.618,-62.618) PLOS ONE 14 1 e0210266 |
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Medicine R Science Q Marja Niemi Lauri Liukkonen Meeri Koivuniemi Miina Auttila Anni Rautio Mervi Kunnasranta Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Climate change, together with increasing human activity, poses a threat to the breeding success of endangered landlocked ringed seals (Phoca hispida saimensis). In this study, we estimated the spatial ecology of Saimaa ringed seals during the breeding season in the ice-covered period of December-April. The telemetry data on tagged seals (n = 20), with a total of 25 separate tracking periods and birth lair locations (n = 59) of non-tagged seals, were studied to estimate the movement ecology and breeding density. The movements of the ringed seals were more restricted during the ice-covered season; the total home range size (average 7.4 km2) in winter was 13 times smaller than that in summer. Individual tagged seals occupied an average of 5 ± 3 SD subnivean haul outs (snow lairs or ice cavities), and the mean distance between the haul outs was 1.6 ± 1.1 SD km (range 0.2-5.9 km). Moreover, our data indicated that ringed seal females likely exhibited breeding time avoidance of each other's core areas, which may indicate some degree of territoriality. This was supported by the findings that the core areas (mean 1.2 km2) of tagged adult females (n = 9), did not overlap with each other. Also data on non-tagged seals showed that females did not give birth to pups within the core area radius of other parturient females. This study, together with earlier findings on the home ranges of nursed pups and perinatal mortality rates, has implications into land usage planning in Lake Saimaa by highlighting the need of undisturbed area between seal lairs and anthropogenic disturbances. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Marja Niemi Lauri Liukkonen Meeri Koivuniemi Miina Auttila Anni Rautio Mervi Kunnasranta |
author_facet |
Marja Niemi Lauri Liukkonen Meeri Koivuniemi Miina Auttila Anni Rautio Mervi Kunnasranta |
author_sort |
Marja Niemi |
title |
Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
title_short |
Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
title_full |
Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
title_fullStr |
Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
title_sort |
winter behavior of saimaa ringed seals: non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 https://doaj.org/article/f776d7f5d7024f02beb7c60c234a5fc6 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-61.040,-61.040,-62.618,-62.618) |
geographic |
Lair |
geographic_facet |
Lair |
genre |
Phoca hispida ringed seal |
genre_facet |
Phoca hispida ringed seal |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 14, Iss 1, p e0210266 (2019) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 https://doaj.org/article/f776d7f5d7024f02beb7c60c234a5fc6 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
e0210266 |
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1766167445507145728 |