Environmental correlates of temporary emigration for female Weddell seals and consequences for recruitment

• Published in: Ecology
• Main Authors: Stauffer, Glenn E., Rotella, Jay J., Garrott, Robert A., Kendall, William
• Language: unknown
• Published: Ecological Society of America 2014
• Subjects: Ecology; Zoology; Wildlife conservation; Weddell; National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs; Weddell Seals
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.montana.edu/xmlui/handle/1/8736; https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1966.1

In colonial-breeding species, prebreeders often emigrate temporarily from natal reproductive colonies then subsequently return for one or more years before producing young. Variation in attendance–nonattendance patterns can have implications for subsequent recruitment. We used open robust-design multistate models and 28 years of encounter data for prebreeding female Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii [Lesson]) to evaluate hypotheses about (1) the relationships of temporary emigration (TE) probabilities to environmental and population size covariates and (2) motivations for attendance and consequences of nonattendance for subsequent probability of recruitment to the breeding population. TE probabilities were density dependent (ˆerrors of population size in the previous year) and increased when the fast-ice. The National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs (grant no. ANT-0635739 to R. A. Garrott, J. J. Rotella, and D. B. Siniff, and previous grants to D. B. Siniff and J. W. Testa) funded our work.