Leopard seals on Macquarie Island

Leopard seals on Macquarie Island Dr Ben Raymond and Harry Burton, Australian Antarctic Division

Leopard Seal at Macquarie Island, photograph by John van den Hoff - Cat:

Project background

The numbers of leopard seals on Macquarie Island have been recorded since about 1948. Leopard seal numbers show a periodic pattern, with large numbers of leopard seals observed about every four years. No relationship between these periodic seal sightings and physical or biological environmental variables has to our knowledge been published.

Spatial data mining techniques were used to search for relationships between seal abundance and physical environmental variables including sea ice cover and sea surface temperature.

Summary of results

The numbers of leopard seals appearing on Macquarie Island was found to be correlated with the sea ice cover and sea surface temperatures of the year before.

The correlation map between sea ice (percentage cover) and leopard seal abundance on Macquarie Island in the following year (1979-2002). Diagram: Ben Raymond

The correlation map between sea surface temperature and leopard seal abundance on Macquarie Island in the following year (1948-2002). Diagram: Ben Raymond

References

• Raymond, B., Watts, D.J., Burton, H., and Bonnice, J. (2004) Data mining and Antarctic scientific data. Submitted.

Related resources

At the Australian Antarctic Division

• Leopard seals: fact files
• Biodiversity - search taxonomy