Dispersal of southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina L.) marked at Macquarie Island

• Published in: Wildlife Research
• Main Author: van den Hoff, J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CSIRO Publishing 2001
• Subjects: Environmental Sciences; Environmental Science and Management; Wildlife and Habitat Management; Campbell Island; Elephant Seals; Macquarie Island; Mirounga leonina; Southern Elephant Seals
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1071/WR00065; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/22841

Southern elephant seals marked at Macquarie Island disperse to distant locations where they are sometimes seen during their moult and, for juveniles, a mid-year haul-out period (July - August). Most (87%) of these resighted seals were within 1000 km of Macquarie Island, and most commonly at Campbell Island (700 km to the north-east). The sex and age classes most likely to disperse there were males less than two years old. Male elephant seals of all ages were resighted significantly more often than females, the ratio being 2: 1 (P > 0.05). Migration duration tended to increase with the seals' age but migration distance was underestimated from resight observations when compared with known telemetry records. Emigration from the Macquarie Island population appears limited. From the resight effort at Campbell Island during 1995 the maximum proportion of the juvenile population from Macquarie Island to haul-out at Campbell Island was in the order of 0.0053.