Relatedness and site fidelity at the southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina, breeding colony in the Falkland Islands

摘要: Southern elephant seals are highly gregarious during the breeding season, and both sexes show fidelity to colony. We used microsatellite DNA analysis assess kinship among in main colony on Falkland Islands. Specifically, we investigated whether females tend cluster with close kin avoid mating male kin. also tested expectations for patterns based sex differences site philopatry. Relatedness within a harem was significantly greater than between harems only two of seven not related size. Some long-term associations female were found harems, including up 5 years, but these higher average dyads other returning females. There no pattern suggesting that tended choose holders either more or less them alternative holders. Overall, pairwise comparisons showed males, consistent previous studies dispersal.