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Leucistic southern elephant seal at Marion Island

Leucistic southern elephant seal at Marion Island
Leucistic southern elephant seal at Marion Island

We observed a light coloured female southern elephant seal juvenile (Mirounga leonina) twice at Marion Island in August 2008 and confirmed that it was leucistic rather than albinistic. Though there have been a few previous reports of light-coloured southern elephant seals, this is the first confirmed case of leucism in this species. Judged to be 1-year old, perhaps 2-years old at the most, and because we have not observed any leucistic pups at Marion Island during the past 2 years despite an extensive monitoring and tagging program, we think that this animal was born at nearby Prince Edward Island or perhaps further afield at Îles Crozet.

0722-4060
509-511
Reisinger, Ryan R.
4eaf9440-48e5-41fa-853f-d46457e5444e
Mufanadzo, N. Thomas
b13801ee-bc87-412a-8425-ac7856de1059
De Bruyn, P. J.Nico
b5de3bc4-f55e-460a-a573-51e7925f9bce
Bester, Marthán N.
cde32f42-fedb-42c6-9a0e-b797259c1cac
Reisinger, Ryan R.
4eaf9440-48e5-41fa-853f-d46457e5444e
Mufanadzo, N. Thomas
b13801ee-bc87-412a-8425-ac7856de1059
De Bruyn, P. J.Nico
b5de3bc4-f55e-460a-a573-51e7925f9bce
Bester, Marthán N.
cde32f42-fedb-42c6-9a0e-b797259c1cac

Reisinger, Ryan R., Mufanadzo, N. Thomas, De Bruyn, P. J.Nico and Bester, Marthán N. (2009) Leucistic southern elephant seal at Marion Island. Polar Biology, 32 (3), 509-511. (doi:10.1007/s00300-008-0572-3).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We observed a light coloured female southern elephant seal juvenile (Mirounga leonina) twice at Marion Island in August 2008 and confirmed that it was leucistic rather than albinistic. Though there have been a few previous reports of light-coloured southern elephant seals, this is the first confirmed case of leucism in this species. Judged to be 1-year old, perhaps 2-years old at the most, and because we have not observed any leucistic pups at Marion Island during the past 2 years despite an extensive monitoring and tagging program, we think that this animal was born at nearby Prince Edward Island or perhaps further afield at Îles Crozet.

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More information

Published date: March 2009

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 469036
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/469036
ISSN: 0722-4060
PURE UUID: 1bf79442-6e50-4008-bf67-9688c31cba52
ORCID for Ryan R. Reisinger: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8933-6875

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Date deposited: 05 Sep 2022 16:57
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:03

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Contributors

Author: N. Thomas Mufanadzo
Author: P. J.Nico De Bruyn
Author: Marthán N. Bester

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