Dear Collegues
We share with you the recent
publication titled:On the presence of a vagrant Juan
Fernández fur seal (Arctocephalus philippii) in the Pacific coast of Colombia:
a new extralimital record.
Avila,
I.C., J.J. Alava & C. Gavis. 2014. On the presence of a
vagrant Juan Fernández fur seal (Arctocephalus philippii) in the Pacific coast
of Colombia: a new extralimital record. Mastozoología
Neotropical 21(1):109-114.
ABSTRACT. We report the
first record of a male Juan Fernández fur seal, Arctocephalus philippii
(Peters, 1866), in the Colombian Pacific coast. The animal was mainly
identified according to the external morphology of the head and snout. This
observation is the first northernmost record for A. philippii in the
Southeastern Pacific, with an extreme movement covering a total distance of
approximately 3700-4600 km from its normal geographic range, including the Juan
Fernández Archipelago and Desventuradas Islands (San Félix and San Ambrosio),
Chile. This finding indicates that vagrant individuals can reach new sites in
the Northern Hemisphere and could have a broader geographical displacement than
previously thought.
The article can be found at
or downloaded from:
--
Isabel Cristina Avila
MSc Biologist