Meeting Abstract
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly changing habitats in the world. Although marine mammals have evolved diverse life history patterns and physiologies to accommodate extreme fluctuations in the physical and biological environment, their ability to cope with rapidly changing habitats in the Antarctic Peninsula is not well understood. To better understand the ability of the leopard seal, an apex predator in the Antarctic ecosystem, to cope with a changing environment, we examined the foraging behavior and habitat utilization of leopard seals using satellite telemetry. We successfully deployed 10 satellite-linked tracking devices on 3 adult male, 6 adult female, and one juvenile female leopard seal on Cape Shirreff Livingston Island, Antarctica during April-May 2018. Three of the ten leopard seals remained within the South Shetland Islands, while two female seals transited hundreds of kilometers to the northeast, and one paused at South Georgia Island. The telemetry tags also provided dive behavior currently being collected and analyzed. These diving and movement data are providing insight into the habitat requirements of this Antarctic top predator. Information on leopard seal dive behavior and habitat requirements are important ecological predictors in the face of climate change.
