Vagrant Antarctic fur seals at the Tristan da Cunha Islands
Abstract Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella
mainly breed at islands south of the Antarctic Polar Front,
but stragglers occasionally occur farther north, with records
from Gough Island (40S, 10W) in the central South
Atlantic Ocean in October/November 2005 and September/
October 2009. We report the first record from Tristan da
Cunha (37S, 12W) in September 2013, and another
individual that was observed at Gough Island. Both individuals
were lean, lethargic subadult males that were
present before the onset of the breeding (pupping) season
of the resident populations of subantarctic fur seals Arctocephalus
tropicalis.
Keywords Antarctic fur seals Tristan da Cunha Islands
Subantarctic fur seals Southern Ocean
Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella mainly breed at
localities south of the Antarctic Polar Front, but have
successfully colonised some subantarctic islands north of
this Front (Condy 1978; Bester 1984), where they are largely
replaced by the subantarctic fur seal Arctocephalus
tropicalis. Vagrant Antarctic fur seals occasionally occur
farther north (Acevedo et al. 2011), reaching Gough Island
(40S,