Separation of foraging habitat among breeding sites of a colonial marine predator, the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus)

This study examines whether lactating northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) from different breeding sites on the Pribilof Islands in the eastern Bering Sea forage in separate areas. Satellite transmitters were attached to 97 northern fur seal females from nine breeding areas for 119 complete foraging trips during the 1995 and 1996 breeding seasons. Females from St. Paul and St. George islands tended to travel in different directions relative to their breeding site in both years of the study. St. Paul Island females dispersed in all directions except to the southeast, where St. George Island females foraged. Habitat separation was also observed among breeding areas on northeastern and south- western St. Paul Island and to a lesser degree on northern and southern St. George Island. Although foraging direction led to geographical separation among sites, the maximum distance traveled and the duration of foraging trips did not differ significantly among islands in either year. The results of this study document that lactating fur seals from the same site share a common foraging area and that females from different breeding sites tend to forage in separate areas and hydrographic domains. Resume : Notre etude verifie si les otaries a fourrure nordiques ( Callorhinus ursinus) nourricieres habitant les differen- tes aires de reproduction des iles Pribilof dans l'est de la mer de Bering recherchent leur nourriture dans des sites dif- ferents. Des emetteurs satellites ont ete fixes a 97 otaries a fourrure provenant de neuf aires de reproduction, fournissant ainsi des donnees sur 119 excursions completes de recherche de nourriture durant les saisons de reproduction 1995 et 1996. Les femelles des iles St-Paul et St-Georges avaient tendance a se deplacer dans des directions differentes de leur aire de reproduction durant les deux annees de l'etude. Les femelles de l'ile St-Paul se dispersaient dans toutes les di- rections, excepte vers le sud-est, ou les femelles de l'ile St-Georges recherchaient leur nourriture. Des separations d'habitat s'observent aussi entre les aires de reproduction au nord-est et au sud-ouest de l'ile St-Paul et, dans une moindre mesure, entre les aires au nord et au sud de l'ile St-Georges. Bien que la direction des deplacements durant la recherche de nourriture ait entraine une separation des sites, la distance maximale des deplacements et la duree des sorties a la recherche de nourriture n'ont pas varie significativement d'une ile a l'autre durant les deux annees. Ces re - sultats montrent que des otaries a fourrure nourricieres provenant d'une meme aire de reproduction ont tendance a par- tager un meme site de recherche de nourriture et que des femelles provenant d'aires de reproduction differentes tendent a rechercher leur nourriture dans des regions et des domaines hydrographiques separes.

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