Demographic consequences and characteristics of recent population mixing and colonization in Steller sea lions, Eumetopias jubatus

Abstract

Abstract Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) are composed of two genetically distinct metapopulations (an increasing “eastern” and a reduced and endangered “western” population, or stock for management purposes in U.S. waters) that are only recently mixing at new rookeries in northern Southeast Alaska, east of the current stock boundary. We used mark-recapture models and 18 years of resighting data of over 3,500 individuals marked at the new rookeries and at neighboring long-established rookeries in both populations to examine morphology, survival, and movement patterns of pups born at new rookeries based on whether they had mitochondrial DNA haplotypes from the western or eastern population (mtW or mtE); examine survival effects of dispersal to the Eastern Stock region for animals born in the Western Stock region; and estimate minimum proportions of animals with western genetic material in regions within Southeast Alaska. Pups born at new rookeries with mtW had similar mass, but reduced body condition and first-year survival (approximately −10%) compared to pups with mtE. mtE pups ranged more widely than mtW pups, including more to the sheltered waters of Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage. Fitness benefits for western-born females that dispersed to Southeast Alaska were observed as higher female survival (+0.127, +0.099, and +0.032 at ages 1, 2, and 3+) and higher survival of their female offspring to breeding age (+0.15) compared to females that remained west of the boundary. We estimated that a minimum of 38% and 13% of animals in the North Outer Coast–Glacier Bay and Lynn Canal–Frederick Sound regions in Southeast Alaska, respectively, carry genetic information unique to the western population. Despite fitness benefits to western females that dispersed east, asymmetric dispersal costs or other genetic or maternal effects may limit the growth of the western genetic lineage at the new rookeries, and these factors require further study.