Habitat preference of southern elephant seals females (Mirounga leonina) during breeding season at Peninsula Potter, Isla 25 de Mayo/King George Island, Antarctica.

NEGRETE JAVIER; ALEJANDRA TÁRTARA; GUSTAVO DANERI; JORGE MENNUCCI; MARÍA MÁRQUEZ; JUÁRES MARIANA

Leuven

Simposio; XIITH SCAR BIOLOGY SYMPOSIUM; 2017

SCAR

In the present study we analysed, using the HAVISTAT 2.0 software, habitat preference of southern elephant seals females during breeding season at the Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) N132 ?Peninsula Potter?. Daily census were conducted during 14 (2002 to 2016 except for 2009) breeding seasons and all the data included in the analyses were those obtained at female peak haul-out. The 7 kilometres of coastline in the study area was divided in seven sectors based on the type of substrate; the slope and orientation of the beaches where animals breed. For 11 of the 14 breeding seasons under study around 86 % of the females at Peninsula Potter prefer to breed in a sector of 1.4 kilometres of beaches with sand and gravel substrate and with gentle slope. Thus, during those seasons on land density in that sector was in average 181 females per kilometre of coastline, a number more than 4 times greater than it was previously reported (Carlini et. Al 2006). Additionally, male on land density was also higher at that sector with an average of 18.5 males per kilometre of coastline compared to the 6.7 males for the entire colony. This relative high density situation and the great proportion of males challenging for access to harems could be leading to high levels of harassment and disturbance of the breeding females. Those are probably some of the factors influencing the distribution of the female borne and marked at Peninsula Potter in nearby islands as it was observed and could also explain the seasonal fluctuations in the number of females breeding at peninsula Potter recently reported (Mennucci et. al 2012).Finally, we also found evidence that during particular seasons some climate anomalies like high precipitation rates and snow accumulation alters the preference of the females for the habitat described. These findings are relevant to conservation efforts and management strategies of protected area since the evidence of an habitat selection of this species had to be considered not only to preserve that habitat in the ASPA but to be aware of potential new areas with those characteristics that may need to be included into protected sites.