A new and endangered species of South American fur seal

DE OLIVEIRA, L; HINGST-ZAHER, E; MAJLUF, P; CRESPO, E; VENEGAS, C; RODRÍGUEZ, D; GOODALL, N; PAVÉS HERNÁNDEZ, H; NÚÑEZ, J; SIEFELD, W; MUELBERT, M; FERRERIA, J; BENITES MORENO, I; MORAES-BARROS, N; EIZIRIK, E; STENGHEL MORGANTE, J

Beijing, China

Congreso; Society for Conservation Biology Meeting 2009; 2009

Society for Conservation Biology

South American fur seals, Arctocephalus australis, occur along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America, but despite their broad distribution, their systematics remains unsolved. Three subspecies have been suggested: A. australis galapagoensis for Galapagos Islands, A. australis australis for the Falkland Islands, and A. australis gracilis for the rest of South America, however, in 1971 A. galapagoensis was recognized as a full species. Here we report the analysis of 15 skull measurements (traditional morphometrics), 52 anatomical landmarks digitized on 754 skull images (geometric morphometrics) and 111 sequences of mitochondrial DNA (control region and cytochrome b) in eight populations of A. australis. Significant differences were observed between the Pacific and Atlantic populations suggesting two distinct evolutionary histories resulting in at least two distinct species: A. australis for the southern Chilean and Atlantic coast (including the Falkland/Malvinas Islands) and Arctocephalus sp. A, as a new and endemic species for the Peruvian and northern Chilean coast. The latter was classified as in danger of extinction for the entire Peruvian coast in 1999 due to a drastic population decline caused by the 1997-1998 ENSO event. In this sense we formally describe here a new and already endangered species of South American fur seal.