| Summary: | Haulout behaviour of harbour seals, living atthe northern limit of their distributional range on Svalbard,Norway, was investigated from June to August2000 using a combination of low-tide counts performedduring boat surveys, hourly counts through 12- or 24-hcycles at specific haulout sites, and telemetric data from37 VHF-tagged seals. The largest aggregations of sealswere found at Skarvnes, a site where numbers increasedsteadily through the summer, reaching a peak during themoulting period in August. At this site, season/date,time of day, tidal state and temperature all significantlyinfluenced the number of animals ashore. At the secondmost frequented haulout site, at Sørøya, season/date,time of day, temperature and cloud cover significantlyaffected the number of seals using the site. Pups werefound predominantly at Sørøya (7.8 pups±6.3 SD,N=53 counts); they were less common at Skarvnes (1.0pups±0.2 SD, N=95 counts). Haulout patterns variedby age and sex class in accordance with the demands oflactation, mating and moult. Our limited data on mother-pup pairs suggest that they are closely associatedduring the nursing period, spending approximately 50%of their time hauled out together. Post lactation, mostadult females left haulout areas for periods of up toseveral days. The haulout behaviour of adult malessuggested that they adjusted their behaviour to followfemale distribution and movement patterns during thebreeding period. Most juveniles and adults of both sexesstayed ashore for prolonged periods during moulting,which took place first in juveniles, then in adult femalesand finally in adult males. The results of our study showthat the basic haulout behaviour patterns of harbourseals at Svalbard are similar to this species' behaviour atlower latitudes.
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