Prey species found within Hooker Sea Lion scats

Brief description

This dataset is a collection of presence-absence and %occurrence data of prey species found within scats of Hooker Sea Lions. The data are presented in an excel spreadsheet.

Samples were collected from 54 scats.

From the abstract of the referenced paper:

Scats were collected from itinerant male Hooker's sea lions, Phocarctos hookeri, at Macquarie Island and the un-eroded faunal remains used to assess the diet. Un-eroded sagittal otoliths were used to identify teleost fish and to calculate fish size. Prey items included 14 taxa of teleost fish, cephalopods, gastropods, crustaceans and fur seals. Fish constituted the primary component of the diet. Prey species previously uncommon in the diet of seals and penguins around Macquarie Island were commonly eaten by Hooker's sea lions. The sub-Antarctic horse fish (Zanclorhynchus spinifer) and the Patagonian tooth fish (Dissostichus eleginoides) were the two most abundant species and occurred in 62.5% and 41.7% of all scats respectively. There were no age specific and individual differences in the diet of sea lions. Seasonal variances in diet were absent. Small plastic fragments (diameter ~ 1mm) were only found in association with Electrona subaspera otoliths. Some overlap was seen between the diet of itinerant male Hooker's sea lions and the commercial fisheries that currently occur around Macquarie Island.

This work was completed as part of ASAC project 2265 (ASAC_2265).

Lineage

Progress Code: completed

Statement: This metadata record describes a dataset that has been found in the
Data-Unknown section of the Australian Antarctic Data Centre servers.

It is highly likely that these data relate to a paper by Clive McMahon, which is referenced below.

The Australian Antarctic Data Centre cannot guarantee the quality of these data.

The excel spreadsheet certainly appears to be about the presence-absence and %occurrence of particular species remains found within the scats of Hooker Sea Lions. It is possible (but by no means guaranteed) that the data were collected from Macquarie Island.

In the original spreadsheet, species names were given in the form 'Z. spifer'. Hence a best guess has been made to provide the genus name of each particular species. In some cases the species name has been totally updated owing to changes in taxonomy. Both the original and modified species names are included in the dataset.

The spreadsheet has a date creation stamp of the 6th of January, 1998. The original spreadsheet was created by Clive McMahon and altered by David Slip.

Dates provided in temporal coverage have been taken from the referenced paper.