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Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) along the Brazilian coast: review and additional records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2010

Jailson Fulgencio de Moura ,
Bruna Pagliani S. di Dario ,
Luciano Moreira Lima  and
Salvatore Siciliano
Jailson Fulgencio de Moura*
Affiliation:
PPG em Saúde Pública e Meio Ambiente, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública/FIOCRUZ Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Marinhos da Região dos Lagos—Projeto de Monitoramento de Aves, Quelônios e Mamíferos Marinhos na Bacia de Campos—CENPES/PETROBRAS & ENSP/FIOCRUZ—Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública—FIOCRUZ, Departamento de Endemias. Rua Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480–6° andar, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21041-210Brazil
Bruna Pagliani S. di Dario
Affiliation:
Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Marinhos da Região dos Lagos—Projeto de Monitoramento de Aves, Quelônios e Mamíferos Marinhos na Bacia de Campos—CENPES/PETROBRAS & ENSP/FIOCRUZ—Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública—FIOCRUZ, Departamento de Endemias. Rua Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480–6° andar, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21041-210Brazil
Luciano Moreira Lima
Affiliation:
Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Marinhos da Região dos Lagos—Projeto de Monitoramento de Aves, Quelônios e Mamíferos Marinhos na Bacia de Campos—CENPES/PETROBRAS & ENSP/FIOCRUZ—Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública—FIOCRUZ, Departamento de Endemias. Rua Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480–6° andar, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21041-210Brazil
Salvatore Siciliano
Affiliation:
Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Marinhos da Região dos Lagos—Projeto de Monitoramento de Aves, Quelônios e Mamíferos Marinhos na Bacia de Campos—CENPES/PETROBRAS & ENSP/FIOCRUZ—Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública—FIOCRUZ, Departamento de Endemias. Rua Leopoldo Bulhões, 1480–6° andar, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21041-210Brazil
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: J.F. de Moura PPG em Saúde Pública e Meio Ambiente Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública/FIOCRUZ email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is a huge marine predator that has a widely circumpolar distribution and breeding sites near the subantarctic convergence. Nevertheless, this seal has been found in several locations far from their breeding grounds. In Brazilian waters this species has been occasionally recorded. The aim of this paper is to review the occurrence of this species along the Brazilian coast, adding new records in the territory. From 1954 to 2008 we compiled 46 records of M. leonina distributed in eight Brazilian coastal states. We present eight non-published records which represent 17.4% of all the records for the Brazilian coast. From 32 sexed seals, 81.2% were males and 61.3% of the specimens were immature. Most records occurred during autumn (N = 15) and winter (N = 18) seasons. Unexpectedly, the records did not show a clear pattern of decrease from high to low latitudinal coastal Brazilian states. The nectonic pattern of M. leonina with the lack of physical barriers and currents moving northwards could be the reason for the dispersion of this seal to different areas along South American coast.

Keywords

Mirounga leoninasouthern elephant sealBrazilian coastpinnipedvagrants
Type
Research Article
Information
Marine Biodiversity Records , Volume 3 , June 2010 , e18
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2010

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