Elephant Seals

Population Ecology, Behavior, and Physiology

Burney J. Le Beouf, Richard M. Laws, Burney J. Le Beouf, Richard M. Laws

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9780520328143
• eBook ISBN: 9780520328150
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The largest of all seals, elephant seals rank among the most impressive of marine mammals. They are renowned for their spectacular recovery from near-extinction at the end of the nineteenth century when seal hunters nearly eliminated the entire northern species. No other vertebrate has come so close to extinction and made such a complete recovery. The physiological extremes that elephant seals can tolerate are also remarkable: females fast for a month while lactating, and the largest breeding males fast for over one hundred days during the breeding seasons, at which times both sexes lose forty percent of their body weight. Elephant seals dive constantly during their long foraging migrations, spending more time under water than most whales and diving deeper and longer than any other marine mammal.

This first book-length discussion of elephant seals brings together worldwide expertise from scientists who describe and debate recent research, including the history and status of various populations, their life-history tactics, and other findings obtained with the help of modern microcomputer diving instruments attached to free-ranging seals. Essential for all marine mammalogists for its information and its methodological innovations, Elephant Seals will also illuminate current debates about species extinctions and possible means of preventing them.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS 1
• PREFACE
• CONTRIBUTORS
• ONE Elephant Seals: An Introduction to the Genus
• PART I Population Ecology
• TWO History and Present Status of the Northern Elephant Seal Population
• THREE History and Present Status of Southern Elephant Seal Populations
• FOUR Possible Causes of the Decline of Southern Elephant Seal Populations in the Southern Pacific and Southern Indian Oceans
• FIVE Population Ecology of Southern Elephant Seals at Marion Island
• SIX Biomass and Energy Consumption of the South Georgia Population of Southern Elephant Seals
• PART II Behavior and Life History
• SEVEN Juvenile Survivorship of Northern Elephant Seals
• EIGHT Life History Strategies of Female Northern Elephant Seals
• NINE Sexual Selection and Growth in Male Northern Elephant Seals
• TEN Sex- and Age-Related Variation in Reproductive Effort of Northern Elephant Seals
• ELEVEN Diet of the Northern Elephant Seal
• PART III Diving and Foraging
• TWELVE Theory of Geolocation by Light Levels
• THIRTEEN Variation in the Diving Pattern of Northern Elephant Seals with Age, Mass, Sex, and Reproductive Condition
• FOURTEEN Diving Behavior of Southern Elephant Seals from Macquarie Island: An Overview
• FIFTEEN Developmental Aspects of Diving in Northern Elephant Seal Pups
• SIXTEEN Postbreeding Foraging Migrations of Northern Elephant Seals
• SEVENTEEN Functional Analysis of Dive Types of Female Northern Elephant Seals
• EIGHTEEN Swim Speed and Dive Function in a Female Northern Elephant Seal
• PART IV Physiological Ecology
• NINETEEN Apnea Tolerance in the Elephant Seal during Sleeping and Diving: Physiological Mechanisms and Correlations
• TWENTY Expenditure, Investment, and Acquisition of Energy in Southern Elephant Seals
• TWENTY-ONE Hormones and Fuel Regulation in Fasting Elephant Seals
• TWENTY-TWO Endocrine Changes in Newborn Southern Elephant Seals
• INDEX