Abstract
Understanding how population density influences mating systems may lead to important insights into the plasticity of breeding behavior, but few natural systems allow for such studies. Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) provide an interesting model system because they breed in colonies of varying densities. Previous studies have largely focused on a high-density site at Bird Island, South Georgia. Here, 13 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to conduct a genetic analysis of a low-density breeding colony of this species at Livingston Island, approximately 1,600 km south of South Georgia. The majority of adults seen ashore (n = 54) were sampled together with every pup born (n = 97) over four consecutive years. Paternities were confidently assigned for 34 out of the 97 pups. Two out of 23 sampled males accounted for the paternity of 28 % of all pups sampled during the study and 82 % of the pups with an assigned father. Moreover, a full likelihood pedigree inference method assigned a further eight paternities to a single unsampled male seal that is inferred to have held a territory during the season before the study began. The most successful males in our study easily surpassed the previous record for the total number of pups sired per male seal for the species. Furthermore, we identified two triads of full siblings implying that their parents remated in three consecutive years. These findings suggest that territorial male fur seals may achieve greater success in monopolizing access to breeding females when population density is relatively low.
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Acknowledgments
C.A. Bonin is supported by the National Science Foundation-Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program grant # 0903551 awarded by the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The United States Antarctic Marine Living Resources Program provided resources for field and laboratory work; we especially thank Dr. Rennie Holt and George Watters for supporting this research. Laboratory infra-structure was provided by Protected Resources Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, CA. We are grateful to the ‘Programa Antártico Brasileiro’ (PROANTAR) and the ‘Ministério da Ciência and Technologia do Brasil’ for transportation of CA Bonin from Punta Arenas to Cape Shirreff during the 2009–2010 field season. Invaluable field assistance was provided by Ryan Burner, Raymond Buchheit, and Birgitte MacDonald. Drs. Eric Lewallen and Phil Morin provided valuable comments on the previous versions of this manuscript.
Ethical standards
All sampling procedures were conducted in full compliance with Marine Mammal Protection Permit No. 774-1847-03 granted by the Office of Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, USA. All animal tissues were transported from Antarctica in accordance with the international laws and are currently stored at the Marine Mammal and Marine Turtle Molecular Research Collection at the same institution, under the US national and international permits granted to the Protected Resources Division and the Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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Communicated by V. M. Janik
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Bonin, C.A., Goebel, M.E., Hoffman, J.I. et al. High male reproductive success in a low-density Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) breeding colony. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 68, 597–604 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1674-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1674-7