Identification of hairs found in leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) scats

The leopard seal is a top-order predator in the Southern Ocean ecosystem and preys on a wide variety of vertebrate species including seals and penguins. We assessed the use of hairs found in leopard seal scats to identify the species of pinniped consumed. A reference collection of hairs was obtained from four potential leopard seal prey species including crabeater, Weddell, Ross, and Southern elephant seals. Discrimination techniques applied to terrestrial mammals did not allow for identification of the seal hairs. Instead, a 2-dimensional (2-D) and 6-dimensional (6-D) analysis technique utilising Mahalanobis distances (D ²) was used. The smallest Mahalanobis distance together with the largest value of p(F) positively identified hairs from each species. The 6-D analysis was more accurate and applied to hairs found in the leopard seal scats. The majority of prey species were identified as crabeater seals, which are a known prey item of the leopard seal.