Pacific Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias fannini) consume thousands of juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.)

An array of predators that consume juvenile salmon (genus Oncorhynchus Suckley, 1861) may account for the poor returns of adult salmon to the Salish Sea. However, the Pacific Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias fannini Chapman, 1901) is rarely listed among the known salmon predators, despite being regularly seen near salmon streams. Investigating heron predation by scanning nesting sites within 35 km of three British Columbia (Canada) rivers for fecal remains containing passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags implanted in >100 000 juvenile salmon from 2008 to 2018 yielded 1205 tags, representing a minimum annual predation rate of 0.3%–1.3% of all juvenile salmon. Most of this predation (99%) was caused by ∼420 adult Pacific Great Blue Herons from three heronries. Correcting for tags defecated outside of the heronry raised the predation rates to 0.7%–3.2%, and was as high as 6% during a year of low river flow. Predation occurs during chick-rearing in late spring and accounts for 4.1%–8.4% of the Pacific Great Blue Heron chick diet. Smaller salmon smolts were significantly more susceptible to Pacific Great Blue Heron predation than larger conspecifics. The proximity of heronries relative to salmon-bearing rivers is likely a good predictor of Pacific Great Blue Heron predation on local salmon runs, and can be monitored to assess coast-wide effects of Pacific Great Blue Herons on salmon recovery.

Resting metabolic rate and activity: key components of seasonal variation in daily energy expenditure for the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus)

Seasonal changes in daily energy expenditure (DEE) and its key underlying components (costs of resting metabolic rate (RMR), thermoregulation, activity, and growth) were measured to determine seasonal energy requirements, bioenergetic priorities, and potential times of year when unpredicted episodes of nutritional stress would have their greatest effect on female northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus (L., 1758)). The mean (±SD) DEE of six captive juvenile female fur seals was 527.8 ± 65.7 kJ·kg−1·d−1 and fluctuated seasonally (lower during summer and winter, and up to 20% greater in spring and fall). RMR also changed significantly with season and was higher in the fall (potentially due to moulting or anticipated migratory activity). However, changes in RMR did not follow the same seasonal trend as those of DEE. The largest component of DEE was RMR (∼80%, on average), followed by the cost of activity (which may have driven some of the seasonal variations in DEE). In contrast, the energetic costs associated with growth and thermoregulation appeared negligible within the scope of overall energy expenditures. Elevated innate costs of RMR and higher growth rates in the fall and summer, respectively, suggest that inadequate nutrition could comparatively have greater negative effects on female fur seals during these seasons.

Diet composition of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in Frederick Sound, southeast Alaska: a comparison of quantification methods using scats to describe temporal and spatial variabilities

We compared eight dietary indices used to describe the diet of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus (Schreber, 1776)) from 2001 to 2004 in Frederick Sound, southeast Alaska. Remains (n = 9666 items) from 59+ species categories were identified from 1684 fecal samples (scats) from 14 collection periods. The most frequently occurring prey were walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma (Pallas, 1814) = Gadus chalcogrammus Pallas, 1814; 95%), Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1847; 30%), Pacific hake (Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855); 29%), and arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias (Jordan and Gilbert, 1880) = Reinhardtius stomias (Jordan and Gilbert, 1880); 21%). These species, along with Pacific salmon (genus Oncorhynchus Suckley, 1861) and skate (genus Raja L., 1758), accounted for 80%–90% of the reconstructed biomass and energy contribution, with pollock contributing 37%–60%. Overall, 80% of fish were 14–42 cm long and mainly pelagic, though 40% of scats contained benthic-associated prey. Steller sea lions switched from adult pollock to strong cohorts of juvenile pollock, and took advantage of spawning concentrations of salmon in autumn and herring in late spring and summer, as well as a climate-driven increase in hake availability. Observed temporal and site differences in diet confirm the need for robust long-term scat sampling protocols. All major indices similarly tracked key temporal changes, despite differences in occurrence and biomass-energy-based diet estimates linked to prey size and energy-density effects and the application of correction factors.

Rates of maximum food intake in young northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) and the seasonal effects of food intake on body growth

Accurate estimates of food intake and its subsequent effect on growth are required to understand the interaction between an animal’s physiology and its biotic environment. We determined how food intake and growth of six young northern fur seals ( Callorhinus ursinus (L., 1758)) responded seasonally to changes in food availability. Animals were given unrestricted access to prey for 8 h·day–1 on either consecutive days or on alternate days only. We found animals offered ad libitum food on consecutive days substantially increased their food intake over normal “training” levels. However, animals that fasted on alternate days were unable to compensate by further increasing their levels of consumption on subsequent feeding days. Absolute levels of food intake were highly consistent during winter and summer trials (2.7–2.9 kg·day–1), but seasonal differences in body mass meant that fur seals consumed more food relative to their body mass in summer (~27%) than in winter (~20%). Despite significant increases in absolute food intake during both seasons, the fur seals did not appear to efficiently convert this additional energy into mass growth, particularly in the winter. These seasonal differences in conversion efficiencies and estimates of maximum intake rates can be used to generate physiologically realistic predictions about the effect of changes in food availability on an individual fur seal, as well as the consequences for an entire population.

Utilization of stored energy reserves during fasting varies by age and season in Steller sea lions

Nine captive Steller sea lions ( Eumetopias jubatus (Schreber, 1776), 1.75–6 years of age) were fasted for 7–14 d to test the effect of short-term fasting on changes in body mass and body condition. Trials were repeated during both the summer breeding season and the nonbreeding season in seven animals to elucidate whether there was a seasonal component to the ability of Steller sea lions to adapt to limited food resources. Mean percent mass loss per day was higher during the breeding season in juveniles (1.8% ± 0.2%·d–1) than in subadults (1.2% ± 0.1%·d–1), but there were no significant age-related differences during the nonbreeding season (juveniles, 1.5% ± 0.3%·d–1; subadults, 1.7% ± 0.3%·d–1). A decrease in the rate of mass loss occurred after the first 3 d of fasting only in subadults during the breeding season. Percent total body lipid ranged from 11% to 28% of total body mass at the initiation of fasting trials. Animals with lower initial percent total body lipid exhibited higher subsequent rates of mass loss and a lower percentage of tissue catabolism derived from lipid reserves. There was no evidence of metabolic adaptation to fasting in juveniles, which suggests that juvenile sea lions would be more negatively impacted by food limitation during the breeding season than would subadults.

Impact of diet-index selection and the digestion of prey hard remains on determining the diet of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus)

Nine prey species (n = 7431) were fed to four captive female Steller sea lions ( Eumetopias jubatus (Schreber, 1776)) in 11 feeding trials over 75 days to investigate the effectiveness of different methods used to determine diet from prey hard remains. Trials aimed to replicate short (1–2 days) and long feeding bouts, and consisted of single species and mixed daily diets. Overall, 25.2% ± 22.2% (mean ± SD, range 0%–83%) otoliths were recovered, but recovery rates varied by species (ANOVA, P = 0.01) and were linearly related to otolith robustness (R2 = 0.88). Squid beaks were recovered at higher frequencies (mean 96%) than the otoliths of all species. Enumerating both non-otolith skeletal structures and otoliths (together termed bones) increased species recovery rates by twofold, on average (P < 0.001), with increases up to 2.5 times for Pacific herring ( Clupea pallasii Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1847) and 3–4 times for salmonids. Using bones reduced interspecific differences (P = 0.08), but recovery varied among sea lions. Bones were distributed over more scats per meal (mean 2.9 scats, range 0–5) than otoliths (mean 1.9 scats, range 0–4). In three different 15-day mixed diet trials, biomass reconstruction (BR) indices performed better than frequency of occurrence indices in predicting diet fed. Applying our experimentally derived numerical correction factors (to account for species differences in complete prey digestion) further improved BR estimates, resulting in all 12 unweighted comparisons within 5% (for otoliths) and 12% (for bones) of the actual diet fed.