Human disturbance influences reproductive success and growth rate in California sea lions (Zalophus californianus).

ABSTRACT: The environment is currently undergoing changes at both global (e.g., climate change) and local (e.g., tourism, pollution, habitat modification) scales that have the capacity to affect the viability of animal and plant populations. Many of these changes, such as human disturbance, have an anthropogenic origin and therefore may be mitigated by management action. To do so requires an understanding of the impact of human activities and changing environmental conditions on population dynamics. We investigated the influence of human activity on important life history parameters (reproductive rate, and body condition, and growth rate of neonate pups) for California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Increased human presence was associated with lower reproductiv

SUBMITTER: French SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3059216 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature