The diet of the Antarctic fur seal Arctocephalus gazella at Harmony Point, Nelson Island, South Shetland Islands |
| |
Authors: | R Casaux A Baroni A Carlini |
| |
Institution: | (1) Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248, 1010 Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: pipocasaux@overnet.com.ar, AR;(2) Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Junín 956, 1113 Buenos Aires, Argentina, AR |
| |
Abstract: | The diet of non-breeding male Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) was investigated at Harmony Point, Nelson Island, South Shetland Islands, by the analysis of 18 and 33 scats collected during
February 1996 and 1997 respectively. Overall, fish were the most frequent prey (74.5%) and predominated by mass (54.4%), whereas
krill predominated by number (94.2%). This coincides well with the pattern observed in 1997, but in 1996 krill was the most
important prey by number and mass (50.2%). The importance of the remaining taxa represented in the samples (octopods, hyperiids
and bivalves) was negligible. Among fish, myctophids represented 85.2% of the fish mass, with Gymnoscopelus nicholsi and Electrona antarctica being the main prey. These two species predominated in 1997, whereas the channichthyid Cryodraco antarcticus and the nototheniid Gobionotothen gibberifrons were dominant in 1996. The importance of the myctophids as prey of the Antarctic fur seal is discussed.
Received: 7 October 1997 / Accepted: 24 May 1998 |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|