Abstract

TRECU, Valentina Franco; TASSINO, Bettina  and  PAEZ, Enrique. Comportamiento maternal de Arctocephalus Australis, en Isla de Lobos - Uruguay. Rev. etol. [online]. 2010, vol.9, n.1, pp. 29-40. ISSN 1517-2805.

In mammals, paternal care is usually performed by females, dividing their investment between present and future offspring and maximizing the cost-benefit relationship. Variation in maternal care behaviour can affect pups’ survival differentially. A. australis is an interest model to assess the incidence of different components of maternal care behaviour on pups’ survival, as well as the monthly and daily variation in mother-calf behaviour. The presence of marked females at the rookery was recorded using focal and scanning sampling methods. State and event frequencies changed between months. Feeding trips had highly variable duration and the survival was strongly affected by the foraging cycle strategy used and the mother-pup contact recorded. The results are discussed in the frame of different hypotheses.

Keywords : Arctocephalus australis; maternal behaviour; Uruguay; temporal variation.

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