Leopard Seal Growth and Demography Data from Macquarie Island, 1957-1999

A subset of the TAGS database contains histories of known-age leopard seals from observations across the Southern Ocean, primarily at Macquarie Island. The data likely includes individual measurements such as weight, length, girth, and survival records collected between 1957 and 1999. This work was completed as part of ASAC project 90 and a snapshot was stored by the Australian Antarctic Data Centre in June 2018.

Use Cases

• Modeling age-specific survival rates based on mark-recapture data mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing individual seal growth patterns based on repeated weight and length measurements.
• Assessing demographic changes in a seal population over time based on long-term cohort data.

Strengths

• Data collection spans a long-term period from 1957 to 1999.
• Includes individual-level tracking via tagging and branding, enabling longitudinal analysis.
• Procedures are described in detail, referencing specific measurement types like weight, length, and girth.

Limitations

• Last updated 1999-10 26 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AU_AADC)

Collection Method

Field observations, individual tagging, and repeated measurements of seals.

Time Range

1957 to 1999

Freshness

1999-10-26 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Southern Ocean, primarily Macquarie Island