Maternal strategies of the Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) at Dangerous Reef, South Australia
Andrew D. Lowther A B and Simon D. Goldsworthy A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A South Australia Research and Development Institute, PO Box 120, Henley Beach, SA 5024, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: andrew.lowther@sa.gov.au
Australian Journal of Zoology 59(1) 54-62 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO11025
Submitted: 23 March 2011 Accepted: 3 June 2011 Published: 8 July 2011
Abstract
Maternal strategies of otariid seals reflect the optimisation between resource exploitation and offspring provisioning driven across spatially separated foraging and nursing grounds. Intercolony variation in the expression of maternal strategies may represent temporal and spatial differences in resource availability, intraspecies competition or differences in life-history traits. The current study describes maternal strategies of the Australian sea lion at the largest breeding colony of the species (Dangerous Reef) and a comparative analysis was performed with data collected 16 years earlier at Seal Bay (Kangaroo Island). Significant differences in maternal strategies were characterised by lower milk lipid content (21.0 versus 28.9%), abbreviated periods onshore (0.93 versus 1.63 days) and slower pup growth rates (0.09–0.12 kg day–1) at Dangerous Reef. These data suggest flexibility in the expression of maternal investment between breeding sites and support the hypothesis of localised adaptation
Additional keywords: attendance, maternal experience, milk, otariid, pup ontogeny.
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