Journal
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Volume 7, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05577-6
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Funding
- ANPCYT [PICT 04025, 4030, 11679, 33934, 2110, PICT-2014-1671, PID 371]
- Wildlife Conservation Society
- Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society [4249/90, 5548/95]
- Marineland Cote D'Azur
- Plan de Manejo Integrado de la Zona Costera Patagonica
- Project United Nation Development Program [ARG-02/018 (B-B27)]
- Estudio de las amenazas para la conservacion de mamiferos marinos de Patagonia (BBVA) [BIOCON 04]
- Efectos de la explotacion humana sobre depredadores apicales y la estructura de la red trofica del Mar Argentino durante los ultimos 6.000 anos (BBVA) [BIOCON 08]
- South American Sea Lion Conservation Program of the Amneville Zoo, France
- YaquPacha
- Heidelberg Zoo
- Dutch Zoo Conservation Fund
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An understanding of the underlying processes and comprehensive history of population growth after a harvest-driven depletion is necessary when assessing the long-term effectiveness of management and conservation strategies. The South American sea lion (SASL), Otaria flavescens, is the most conspicuous marine mammal along the South American coasts, where it has been heavily exploited. As a consequence of this exploitation, many of its populations were decimated during the early 20th century but currently show a clear recovery. The aim of this study was to assess SASL population recovery by applying a Bayesian state-space modelling framework. We were particularly interested in understanding how the population responds at low densities, how human-induced mortality interplays with natural mechanisms, and how density-dependence may regulate population growth. The observed population trajectory of SASL shows a non-linear relationship with density, recovering with a maximum increase rate of 0.055. However, 50 years after hunting cessation, the population still represents only 40% of its pre-exploitation abundance. Considering that the SASL population in this region represents approximately 72% of the species abundance within the Atlantic Ocean, the present analysis provides insights into the potential mechanisms regulating the dynamics of SASL populations across the global distributional range of the species.
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