A wandering Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) at Trindade Island, Brazil: the extreme sighting of a circumpolar species

作者：Frainer Guilherme; Heissler Vanessa L.; Moreno Ignacio B.

来源：Polar Biology, 2018, 41(3): 579-582.

DOI：10.1007/s00300-017-2218-9

• Weddell seal
• Circumpolar distribution
• El Nino
• Trindade Island
• Climate change

Records of vagrant marine organisms provide important information on oceanographic anomalies and the changing environment. We report on an immature Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii, sighted at Calheta Beach in Trindade Island (20 degrees 31'S 29 degrees 19'W), Brazil, on July 9, 2015. A number of injuries were noted, including blisters on the dorsal surface of the body and a small cut at the right-hand side distal portion of the mandible. Based on its size and the state of fusion of cranial sutures, we suggest that it was born in the 2014 austral spring and was possibly 8-10 months old. We suggest that it comes from the South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Peninsula. This is the closest breeding location of this species. This sighting is the northernmost of L. weddellii, being at least similar to 5140 km from the Antarctic Peninsula (63 degrees 12'S 55 degrees 04'W) and similar to 2840 km north from the second northernmost sighting of this species in Uruguay.

• 出版日期2018-3