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Northern Fur Seals (northern + fur_seal)
Selected AbstractsHISTORICAL AND RECENT COLONIZATION OF THE SOUTH FARALLON ISLANDS, CALIFORNIA, BY NORTHERN FUR SEALS (CALLORHINUS URSINUS)MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2001Peter Pyle [source] Isotopic tracking of prehistoric pinniped foraging and distribution along the central California coast: preliminary resultsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2002R. K. Burton Abstract Zooarchaeological data from Monterey Bay and the adjacent central California coast corroborate earlier observations from northern California and Oregon that Callorhinus ursinus (northern fur seal) was a much more common component in prehistoric marine mammal prey than its present pelagic distribution and foraging habits would predict. C. ursinus remains from mid-Holocene Monterey Bay occurrences are predominantly from female individuals, associated with an inshore piscifauna, and lack associated artifactual evidence for deep water exploitation. Taken together with evidence from Oregon, this suggests that mid-Holocene C. ursinus populations had different foraging, resting, and, arguably, reproductive behaviours than historically reported. Currently debated is whether the contrast between prehistoric and present patterns of pinniped species representation results from: 1) late Holocene prehistoric resource depression by aboriginal hunters, 2) depredations of the early historic fur trade, or 3) non-anthropogenic climatic or oceanographic change. The issue has thus far been addressed with presence or absence data on pinniped species and age/sex classes in dated contexts. While these are fundamental data, they cannot shed light on the nature of foraging behaviour of the species in question, a key dimension of the problem. This paper reports a pilot study utilizing stable isotope analysis aimed to elucidate prehistoric pinniped foraging patterns, specifically that of C. ursinus. Elements from six archaeological sites in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties were analysed for stable isotope compositions of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen and compared to a latitudinally ordered modern dataset. Results for archaeological C. ursinus strongly suggest that prehistoric animals habitually foraged at lower latitudes than characterize the species today, supporting earlier claims of their year-round residency south of Alaska. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Treatment of northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) pups with ivermectin reduces hookworm-induced mortalityMARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, Issue 4 2009Robert L. DeLong [source] Association of heavy metals with metallothionein and other proteins in hepatic cytosol of marine mammals and seabirdsENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 8 2004Tokutaka Ikemoto Abstract Distribution of Cu, Zn, Cd, Ag, Hg, and Se were determined in hepatocytosol of northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus), black-footed albatrosses (Diomedea nigripes), and Dall's porpoises (Phocoenoides dalli). Copper, Zn, and Cd were accumulated preferentially in metallothionein (MT) fraction and their contents in MT fraction increased with the amounts in the hepatocytosol. Silver was bound to both high-molecular-weight substances (HMWS) and MT in the hepatocytosol for all three species, whereas the distribution of Ag in the cytosol was different among the three species. In northern fur seals, Ag mainly was bound to MT, whereas it mainly was associated with HMWS in Dall's porpoises. In contrast, Ag was distributed almost equally in both HMWS and MT for black-footed albatrosses. Mercury content in HMWS and Se content in HMWS and low-molecular-weight substances (LMWS) increased with their contents in hepatocytosol for all the three species. A significant positive correlation was found between Se and Hg contents in high-molecular weight (HMW) fraction in cytosol. The molar ratio of Hg and Se was close to unity in HMW fraction of the specimens with high Hg concentration in cytosol, implying that the Hg,Se complex was bound to the HMWS. Analysis of metals in the hepatocytosol by high-performance liquid chromatography/inductively coupled plasma,mass spectrometry (HPLC/ICP-MS) suggests that multiple isoforms of MT are present in hepatocytosol of the three species and that the metal profiles in hepatocytosols are different among the species. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the association of Ag with HMWS and MT in hepatocytosol of marine mammals and seabirds. Also, distribution and interaction of Hg and Se were investigated for the first time in hepatocytosol of the higher trophic marine animals. [source] Foraging habitats based on the diet of female northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) on the Pribilof Islands, AlaskaJOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY, Issue 4 2006T. K. Zeppelin Abstract Scats (fecal samples) collected between 1987 and 2000 on northern fur seal Callorhinus ursinus rookeries of St Paul (n=2968) and St George Islands (n=1203), Alaska, were used to examine the relationship between breeding sites and food habits of adult female seals. On the basis of the frequency of occurrence (FO) and per cent minimum number of individual prey (%MNI) in scats, juvenile walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma and gonatid squid Gonatopsis borealis/Berryteuthis magister and Gonatus madokai/Gonatus middendorffi were the dominant prey species consumed overall. Other primary prey (FO>5%) included Pacific sand lance Ammodytes hexapteus, Pacific herring Clupea pallasi, northern smoothtongue Leuroglossus schmidti, Atka mackerel Pleurogrammus monopterygius, Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and other squid of the Gonatus genus. We identified five rookery complexes from a cluster analysis of the FO of primary prey in scats. Rookery complexes were separated geographically and each was further defined by characteristic patterns in the representation of prey types typically associated with specific hydrographic domains. Diet differences were observed among rookeries on the north and south side of St George Island and on the east, south and south-west side of St Paul Island. The rookery clusters observed in this study provide evidence of resource partitioning among adult female northern fur seals and have important implications for fur seal conservation and management. [source] |