Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events?
Background: Extralimital observations of pinnipeds are important to understand the effects of changing climates on our oceans and the distribution of these species. The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is a known vagrant species that moves over long distances. We report three new records of...
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BioMed Central
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66331 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-018-0149-y |
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ftunivbritcolcir:oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/66331 2023-05-15T16:05:09+02:00 Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? Páez-Rosas, Diego Riofrío-Lazo, Marjorie Ortega, Jorge Morales, Juan de Dios Carvajal, Raúl Alava, Juan J 2018-06-20 http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66331 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-018-0149-y eng eng BioMed Central Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Author(s) CC-BY Mirounga leonina Southern elephant seal Extralimital movement Gulf of Guayaquil Ecuador La Niña Text Article 2018 ftunivbritcolcir https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-018-0149-y 2019-10-15T18:26:15Z Background: Extralimital observations of pinnipeds are important to understand the effects of changing climates on our oceans and the distribution of these species. The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is a known vagrant species that moves over long distances. We report three new records of M. leonina in interior freshwater tributaries of the Guayas River Estuary Basin (Gulf of Guayaquil) and northern coast of Ecuador between October 2017 and January 2018 during a cold episode of La Nina event in the southeastern Pacific. Results: The elephant seals were identified according to their large size (~ 5 m for adult and 2–3 m for juveniles/subadults), the head to neck size ratio, and the size and external morphology of the proboscis, which was used as a key trait to differentiate M. leonina from the Northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris). The observations of M. leonina in Ecuador highlight an extreme movement covering an assumed total distance of approximately 8000 km from the circumpolar region. The cold event “La Niña” with sea surface temperature anomalies ranging − 1.5 °C to − 0.5 °C in October 2017 likely triggered the extralimital movements of these animals. Conclusion: Recurring observations of M. leonina in the Guayaquil Gulf suggest the importance of this highly productive region and tropical estuarine-riverine habitats as temporary haulout sites for resting. These new findings indicate that vagrant individuals influenced by oceanographic events and eco-physiological processes are reaching this region more frequently than previously thought. Science, Faculty of Non UBC Oceans and Fisheries, Institute for the Reviewed Faculty Article in Journal/Newspaper Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seal University of British Columbia: cIRcle - UBC's Information Repository Guayaquil ENVELOPE(-59.767,-59.767,-62.449,-62.449) Pacific Marine Biodiversity Records 11 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of British Columbia: cIRcle - UBC's Information Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftunivbritcolcir |
language |
English |
topic |
Mirounga leonina Southern elephant seal Extralimital movement Gulf of Guayaquil Ecuador La Niña |
spellingShingle |
Mirounga leonina Southern elephant seal Extralimital movement Gulf of Guayaquil Ecuador La Niña Páez-Rosas, Diego Riofrío-Lazo, Marjorie Ortega, Jorge Morales, Juan de Dios Carvajal, Raúl Alava, Juan J Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? |
topic_facet |
Mirounga leonina Southern elephant seal Extralimital movement Gulf of Guayaquil Ecuador La Niña |
description |
Background: Extralimital observations of pinnipeds are important to understand the effects of changing climates on our oceans and the distribution of these species. The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is a known vagrant species that moves over long distances. We report three new records of M. leonina in interior freshwater tributaries of the Guayas River Estuary Basin (Gulf of Guayaquil) and northern coast of Ecuador between October 2017 and January 2018 during a cold episode of La Nina event in the southeastern Pacific. Results: The elephant seals were identified according to their large size (~ 5 m for adult and 2–3 m for juveniles/subadults), the head to neck size ratio, and the size and external morphology of the proboscis, which was used as a key trait to differentiate M. leonina from the Northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris). The observations of M. leonina in Ecuador highlight an extreme movement covering an assumed total distance of approximately 8000 km from the circumpolar region. The cold event “La Niña” with sea surface temperature anomalies ranging − 1.5 °C to − 0.5 °C in October 2017 likely triggered the extralimital movements of these animals. Conclusion: Recurring observations of M. leonina in the Guayaquil Gulf suggest the importance of this highly productive region and tropical estuarine-riverine habitats as temporary haulout sites for resting. These new findings indicate that vagrant individuals influenced by oceanographic events and eco-physiological processes are reaching this region more frequently than previously thought. Science, Faculty of Non UBC Oceans and Fisheries, Institute for the Reviewed Faculty |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Páez-Rosas, Diego Riofrío-Lazo, Marjorie Ortega, Jorge Morales, Juan de Dios Carvajal, Raúl Alava, Juan J |
author_facet |
Páez-Rosas, Diego Riofrío-Lazo, Marjorie Ortega, Jorge Morales, Juan de Dios Carvajal, Raúl Alava, Juan J |
author_sort |
Páez-Rosas, Diego |
title |
Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? |
title_short |
Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? |
title_full |
Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? |
title_fullStr |
Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Southern elephant seal vagrants in Ecuador: a symptom of La Niña events? |
title_sort |
southern elephant seal vagrants in ecuador: a symptom of la niña events? |
publisher |
BioMed Central |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66331 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-018-0149-y |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-59.767,-59.767,-62.449,-62.449) |
geographic |
Guayaquil Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Guayaquil Pacific |
genre |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seal |
genre_facet |
Elephant Seal Elephant Seals Mirounga leonina Southern Elephant Seal |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Author(s) |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41200-018-0149-y |
container_title |
Marine Biodiversity Records |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766400931541286912 |