Cephalopod prey of the sub-Antarctic fur seal, Arctocephalus tropicalis at Gough Island.

Abstract

Stomachs of fur seals culled on land were either empty (32%), contained only stones (8%) or contained almost exclusively prey remains resistant to digestion. Pooled cephalopod lower beaks that could be identified showed that Ommastrephidae (52.5%), Histioteuthidae (25.2%), Onychoteuthidae (19.9%), Cranchiidae (2.1%) and Octopoteuthidae (0.3%) constituted the main prey items based on frequency of occurrence. Cephalopod mass estimates, from regression of lower rostral lengths against mass, approximated this relative arrangement of cephalopod families. -from Authors