Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:49:25.935Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Females

Designed to Reproduce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2021

Bernard J. Le Boeuf
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Get access

Summary

Females are designed to reproduce, and mating is a small part of the process. Females that are most productive breed early in life, at every opportunity (annually), live long, and wean large pups that are most likely to survive and reproduce. These supermoms are rare but have the greatest influence on the next generations. In contrast, most female weanlings (75%) die before reaching breeding age, and most that survive to breed do so only a few times. Long-lived supermoms live up to age 23 and may produce 20 pups in life.

Type
Chapter
Information
Elephant Seals
Pushing the Limits on Land and at Sea
, pp. 80 - 98
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Females
  • Bernard J. Le Boeuf, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Book: Elephant Seals
  • Online publication: 23 September 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052085.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Females
  • Bernard J. Le Boeuf, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Book: Elephant Seals
  • Online publication: 23 September 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052085.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Females
  • Bernard J. Le Boeuf, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Book: Elephant Seals
  • Online publication: 23 September 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009052085.009
Available formats
×