Natal and breeding philopatry of female Steller sea lions in southeastern Alaska

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Natal and breeding philopatry of female Steller sea lions in southeastern Alaska
• Journal Title:
  PLOS ONE
• Personal Author:
  Hastings, Kelly K. ; Jemison, Lauri A. ; Pendleton, Grey W. ; Raum-Suryan, Kimberly L. ; Pitcher, Kenneth W.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center) ; OPR (Office of Protected Resources)
• Description:
  Information on drivers of dispersal is critical for wildlife conservation but is rare for long-lived marine mammal species with large geographic ranges. We fit multi-state mark-recapture models to resighting data of 369 known-aged Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) females marked as pups on their natal rookeries in southeastern Alaska from 1994-2005 and monitored from 2001-15. We estimated probabilities of females being first observed parous at their natal site (natal philopatry), and of not moving breeding sites among years (breeding philopatry) at large (> 400 km, all five rookeries in southeastern Alaska) and small (< 4 km, all islands within the largest rookery, Forrester Island Complex, F) spatial scales. At the rookery scale, natal philopatry was moderately high (0.776-0.859) for most rookeries and breeding philopatry was nearly 1, with < 3% of females switching breeding rookeries between years. At more populous islands at F, natal philopatry was 0.500-0.684 versus 0.295-0.437 at less populous islands, and breeding philopatry was 0.919-0.926 versus 0.604-0.858. At both spatial scales, the probability of pupping at a non-natal site increased with population size of, and declined with distance from, the destination site. Natal philopatry of < 1 would increase gene flow, improve population resilience, and promote population recovery after decline in a heterogeneous environment. Very high breeding philopatry suggests that familiarity with neighboring females and knowledge of the breeding site (the topography of pupping sites and nearby foraging locations) may be a critical component to reproductive strategies of sea lions.
• Keywords:
  Antarctic Fur Seal Consequentialism Conservation Control Dispersal Fishes Mammals Parturition Grounds Regional Economics Science Sequences Steller's Sea Lion Survival Technology Antarctic Fur Seal Parturition Grounds Regional Economics Steller's Sea Lion

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• Source:
  PLOS ONE
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0176840
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5462361 ; PMC5909906
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA17FX1079 ; Grant no. NA04NMF4390170 ; Grant no. NA08NMF4390544 ; Grant no. NA11NMF4390200 ; Grant no. NA15NMF4390170
• Place as Subject:
  Alaska, Southeast
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  PMC
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b3e1affe3c872c8135106232db4c0919c51f4467fed03a7a02a03cf2cfee2e8e0bd8d2a0cebfb8f59fca07057ce6878764fc8581f88734fb591d999a4c5c40f8
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/24585/noaa_24585_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 3.65 MB ]