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Harbor seal pup dispersal and individual morphology, hematology, and contaminant factors affecting survival

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Date
31/10/2018
Author
Greig, Denise J.
Gulland, Frances M. D.
Harvey, James T.
Lonergan, Mike
Hall, Ailsa J.
Keywords
Harbor seal
Phoca vitulina
Contaminants
Survival
Dispersal
Stranding
Telemetry
Postweaning
Juvenile
Health
QH301 Biology
NDAS
NERC
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Abstract
Understanding the factors affecting individual harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) survival is essential for determining population level health risks. We estimated postweaning dispersal, and modeled the effects of morphology, hematology, and blubber contaminants on the survival of recently weaned harbor seal pups using a mark recapture framework. We deployed satellite transmitters on apparently healthy pups captured in San Francisco Bay (SFB, n = 19) and Tomales Bay (TB, n = 7), and pups released after rehabilitation that stranded along the central California coast preweaning (n = 21). Dispersal distances were further than previously reported for harbor seal pups (maximum = 802 km) which has implications for understanding risks to this vulnerable age class. We found differences in body condition, serum immunoglobulin and thyroxine (T4) concentrations, white blood cell count, and blubber organohalogen contamination (OH) among the three groups. Overall, increased T4, decreased OH, and increased mass were associated with greater survival probabilities; whereas, among stranded seals, greater mass gain, shorter time in rehabilitation, and admission to rehabilitation earlier in the season were associated with greater survival probabilities. Attention to these latter factors may improve the success of rehabilitation efforts. For wild pups, reduction of legacy contaminants and direct causes of mortality, such as ship strike, may enhance pup survival.
Citation
Greig , D J , Gulland , F M D , Harvey , J T , Lonergan , M & Hall , A J 2018 , ' Harbor seal pup dispersal and individual morphology, hematology, and contaminant factors affecting survival ' , Marine Mammal Science , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12541
Publication
Marine Mammal Science
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12541
ISSN
0824-0469
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Marine Mammal Science published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Marine Mammalogy. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Description
This work was funded by The Valentine Family Foundation and the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program.
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/16372

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