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FIRST RECORD OF A SEA LION ZALOPHUS CALIFORIANUS , AT ISLA DEL COCO, COSTA RICA
Author(s) -
AcevedoGutiérrez Alejandro
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
marine mammal science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.723
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1748-7692
pISSN - 0824-0469
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-7692.1994.tb00507.x
Subject(s) - humanities , citation , geography , mammal , marine mammal , library science , art , ecology , biology , computer science
This note reports the first sighting of a sea lion (Zalophus californianus) at Isla de1 Coca (05”33’N, 87”3O’W), Costa Rica, about 730 km northeast of the Galapagos Islands. Isla de1 Coca is a small (24 km2), isolated, and uninhabited island in the eastern ‘tropical Pacific Ocean, approximately 500 km SW of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. From February to August 1993, marine mammals occurring around the island were recorded as part of a larger field study on dolphin behavior. The sea lion was sighted once, on 10 February 1993 at 1100. The individual was determined to be a young male based on a photograph showing the development of a cranial sagittal crest (Orr et al. 1970). The animal was moving north within 10 m of the east coast of Manuelita, an islet 500 m north of Isla de1 Coca, where the animal was last seen. The nearest sea lion population to Isla de1 Coca is at the Galapagos Islands (OO”N, 9 low>, where the Galapagos sea lion (Z. c. wollebaeki) breeds (Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1984). The California sea lion population (Z. c. californianus) migrates primarily to the north (Bartholomew and Hubbs 1952, Orr and Poulter 1965, Mate 1973) and the southernmost record of a possible California sea lion (Gallo-Reynoso and Solorzano-Velasco 1991) is about 1,100 km northwest from Isla de1 Coca. Thus, I believe that the male observed at Isla de1 Coca belongs to the subspecies Z. c. wollebaeki. There are oral accounts on the presence of sea lions at Isla de1 Coca during the past (Weston 1992); however, this is the first documented report of the species on the island, extending their range to 05”33’N. Currently, there are no records of the subspecies Z. c. wollebaeki outside the Galapagos Islands. If, as I believe, the individual observed at Isla de1 Coca belonged to this subspecies, there is the possibility that at least some individuals disperse far from their breeding grounds.