Aggregation of mummified adult crabeater seals (Pinnipedia:Phocidae) in the eastern Antarctic Peninsula : age and sex structure, taphonomy and causes of death

NEGRETE J.; SOIBELZON LH; SOIBELZON, E.; MÁRQUEZ, M.; LOZA C. M; ACOSTA, W.; LUSKY, J.; PECORARO, M.

ANTARCTIC SCIENCE

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2015

0954-1020

Abstract: In Antarctica, crabeater seals tend to strand as immature animals with disorientation, due totheir inexperience, given as the probable cause. In 2012 and 2013, we examined a group of 80 mummifiedcrabeater seals on Seymour Island (Marambio). The age and gender of 28 seals was determined, andvirology and stomach content analyses were performed in order to determine the cause of stranding.Around 82% of the seals examined were adults and 79% were females, some of which were pregnant.All of the seals sampled tested negative for Morbillivirus, suggesting that the stranding was not related to themass mortality event reported in the 1950s in the region. Most seals had empty stomachs and thin blubbersuggesting that they died from starvation. The state of the carcasses suggests multiple stranding events.Mostof the seals were located along an ice-covered stream, suggesting that thismay act as a ?natural trap?, isolatingthe seals from the open ocean. This is exceptional as it is the first report of mostly adult female seals to strandin Antarctica and refutes the theory that only young animals are prone to stranding.