Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Population biology

Fur seals signal their own decline

Nature volume 511, pages 414–415 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Data on three generations of Antarctic fur seals suggest that climate change is reducing the survival of less-fit individuals with low genetic variation, but that overall seal numbers are falling. See Letter p.462

A little more than a century ago, humans had pushed Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) to the brink of extinction. Once hunting stopped, their numbers rose, and by the early twenty-first century their population had grown to a few million. On page 462 of this issue, Forcada and Hoffman1 show that breeding fur seals on the beaches of South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic are, on average, becoming more heterozygous — an indicator of individual genetic variability that is linked to improved survival and reproductive success. At face value, this seems to be good news, but a more detailed look reveals that it is a worrying symptom of a population that is again declining.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Climate change in the genes.

References

  1. Forcada, J. & Hoffman, J. I. Nature 511, 462–465 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Amos, W. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 268, 2021–2027 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Chapman, J. R., Nakagawa, S., Coltman, D. W., Slate, J. & Sheldon, B. C. Mol. Ecol. 18, 2746–2765 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Thelen, G. C. & Allendorf, F. W. Evolution 55, 1180–1187 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Nicol, S., Foster, J. & Kawaguchi, S. Fish Fish. 13, 30–40 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Magera, A. M., Mills Flemming, J. E., Kaschner, K., Christensen, L. B. & Lotze, H. K. PLoS ONE 8, e77908 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. timothy.coulson@zoo.ox.ac.uk

  2. Twitter: @tncoulson

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tim Coulson and Sonya Clegg are in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.,

    Tim Coulson & Sonya Clegg

  2. S.C. is also at the Griffith School of Environment and Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Queensland, Australia.,

    Sonya Clegg

Authors
  1. Tim Coulson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sonya Clegg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tim Coulson or Sonya Clegg.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Coulson, T., Clegg, S. Fur seals signal their own decline. Nature 511, 414–415 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/511414a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/511414a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing