Project information
Project aim
This study will use innovative technology to measure the winter spatial foraging patterns and nett energy gain of adult female elephant seals (and potentially Weddell seals), while simultaneously providing high-resolution data on the physical nature of the water column in which the seals live. By combining biological and physical data with satellite derived sea-ice information, this study will improve our understanding of predator foraging success (and therefore mechanisms which regulate population trajectories) and provide physical oceanographers with fundamental data on the importance mechanisms that determine the winter ice and bottom water formation that under-pin the Antarctic marine ecosystem.
Related publications
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Elephant seal dive behaviour responds consistently to changes in foraging success regardless of sex or ocean habitat PeerJ, 2025
(Ref: 17475)
Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
Understanding how air-breathing diving animals moderate their dive behaviour when foraging successfully is foundational in the study of their foraging ecology. Yet, this fundamental relationship remains unresolved with previous research pointing to inconsistent relationships…
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Status of ocean observations in the Indian Sector of the Southern Ocean Elementa, 2025
(Ref: 17359)
Authors:Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
One of the largest sectors of the Southern Ocean is the Indian Sector, which plays an important role in regulating the Earth's climate and supports a diverse ecosystem. To understand how climate change impacts the environment in this sector…
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The ongoing decrease in numbers of breeding female southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina L.) at Macquarie Island Antarctic Science, 2025
(Ref: 17326)
Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
Population monitoring provides information on species conservation status. We reassess the status of the southern elephant seal population at Macquarie Island. The number of cows on the isthmus, ~20% of the total population, correlated with counts for the whole island (i.e.
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Differences in age-dependent survival between male and female Southern Elephant Seals 10th SCAR Open Science Conference: Antarctica in a Changing World, 1-10 August 2022, Oral presentation, 2022
(Ref: 17027)
Category 3: Verbal presentation
Individual life-history traits, such as age and sex, influence vital rates in most large vertebrate species. Developmental differences are especially profound in polygamous mating systems. One of the most polygamous of all mammals, the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina)…
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Extreme polygyny results in intersex differences in age-dependent survival of a highly dimorphic marine mammal Royal Society Open Science, 2023
(Ref: 16755)
Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature