Mirror Daily

Friday, April 23, 2021
Log in
  • Home
  • National & Global News
  • Business & Economy
  • Tech & Science
  • Health
  • About Mirror Daily
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Latest News
    • The Geological Features of Pluto Have Just Gotten Dark Names Inspired from the Underworld
    • The Abuse of Imodium
    • McDonald’s Salads are worse than their Burgers
    • US Family Sues Hospital Over Botched Tonsillectomy
    • Should We Go Back to The Moon?
    • Photo of Gay Military Men Kissing Goes Viral

Pages

  • About Mirror Daily
  • Contact Us
  • Fossil Reveals That Dinosaurs Suffered from Arthritis
  • Our Team
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use
  • World Breastfeeding Week: Advantages and Disadvantages

Recent Posts

  • Canadian Teen Killed by Toxic Shock Syndrome on School Trip June 29, 2018
  • Donut Fries Coming to Dunkin’ Donuts Nationwide June 28, 2018
  • Kohl’s Hiring Workers for Holiday Season amid Labor Shortage June 28, 2018
  • This is How You’re Sabotaging Your Skin Safety June 27, 2018
  • SF Woman Calls Cops on Little Girl for Selling Water on Street June 26, 2018
  • Sarah Sanders Misused Official Twitter Account to Complain about Restaurant June 25, 2018
  • Man Arrested for Placing 10-Ft-Long Heroin Spoon Outside Drug Maker HQ June 25, 2018

Hundreds of Starving Seal Pups Stranded Themselves in California

March 4, 2016 By John Birks Leave a Comment

"Californian sea lion"

A lack of adequate nutrition is causing the pups to not develop properly.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – Hundreds of starving seal pups stranded themselves in California and researchers tried to figure out the reason. The phenomenon has become increasingly common, at it seems that the food resources are to blame. If the mother seals do not find fish that is filled with the appropriate amounts of nutrients, the seal pups will be thinner, malnourished.

Hundreds of starving seal pups stranded themselves in California, and the declining numbers of anchovies and sardines are directly responsible.

According to the government researchers that looked into the problem, the mothers of the malnourished pups are incapable of finding proper food in order to produce enough milk.

The standard food for seals are anchovies and sardines, but when their population is scarce, the marine mammals turn to squid and rockfish instead.

While rockfish provides enough sustenance in order for both the mother and the up to stay alive, they do not contain appropriate amounts of nutritional content. In consequence, the seals produce less quality milk that does not sustain a harmonious development of the pups.

It has been a rough life for California-based sea lions ever since the 1800s. The peaceful mammals were first hunted down by humans that used their oil, meat and fur. Seeing as they are social creatures, the seals were also hurt during fishing operations.

In less than 200 years, the sea lions population reached an alarming 50,000 individuals. That is when Richard Nixon signed the Protection Act for Marine Mammals. After it was placed under federal protection, the Zalophus californianus population managed to reach 340,000 specimens in 2014.

But federal protection is not enough to keep the sea lion population floating. Due to increasingly violent El Nino phenomenon, their basic food source, anchovies and sardines, was scattered, and they were left with squid and rockfish.

In order to find out more about the changing eating habits of female Zalophus californianus, and to establish the reason for the ever increasing number of malnourished pups, researchers monitored the activity of six individuals which were tagged in the 1990s.

According to the data provided by the tracked females, their preferred hunting locations are between Malibu and Big Sur.

The next step was to find out what kind of fish populated that area in the late years. And an NOAA report showed that the majority of prey consisted of rockfish, squid and other small fish species.

The last step was to establish the average weight of seal pups. It seems that during 2004 and 2011, the standard weight ranged from 14.8 to 20.9 kg in the case of female cubs and 17.5 to 23.6 kg for the male ones.

After compiling and analyzing all of the data, the researchers discovered that in the years in which anchovies and sardines were abundant, the pups faired rather well. But when the only food available were rockfish and squids, the cubs were underweight.

Hundreds of starving seal pups stranded themselves in California, and the reason behind this odd migration is the lack of nutritious food for their mothers.

Image source: www.pixabay.com

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: anchovies, California, El Nino, lack of food, sardines, sea lions, seal pups, starving sea pups

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Articles

Albert Einstein in group photo

Einstein’s Travel Diaries Reveal His Lesser Known Racist Side

June 14, 2018 By John Birks

Baobab tree in Tanzania

Southern Africa’s Iconic Baobab Trees Facing Massive Die-Off

June 11, 2018 By John Birks

UFO 'Self Parking' Sign

Researcher Accuses NASA of Massive Alien Cover-Up

March 5, 2018 By John Birks

Elon Musk's flying Tesla roadster

NASA Warns Elon Musk’s Flying Tesla Roadster May Contaminate Mars

February 28, 2018 By John Birks

Windows 10 home screen

Microsoft Working on Making Windows Password-Free

February 12, 2018 By John Birks

Ice Cubes

Scientists Discover Fourth State of Water: Superionic Ice

February 10, 2018 By John Birks

Head of a northern gannet

Forever Alone Nigel the Gannet Found Dead near Fake Partner

February 3, 2018 By John Birks

Globular Star Cluster

Scientists Find Surprise Black Hole in Globular Star Cluster

January 20, 2018 By John Birks

The Amazon Echo Dot

America’s Smart Speaker Market Jumps to 39 Million Users

January 15, 2018 By John Birks

Pink plasma ball

CES 2018: Intel Presents Out-of-This-World Quantum Computer

January 10, 2018 By John Birks

Teen using her iPad

Major Apple Investors Urge Company to Do More About iPhone Addiction

January 8, 2018 By John Birks

Russian spacecraft

Out-of-Control Chinese Space Station Hurling Toward Earth

January 5, 2018 By John Birks

wanning moon seen on the evening sky in between trees

Scientists Thrilled about Trump’s Initiative to Send Explorers Back to the Moon

December 31, 2017 By John Birks

Two iPhone 7 models on table

Apple Confirms Slower-iPhone Conspiracy Theory

December 22, 2017 By John Birks

Categories

  • Business & Economy
  • Capital & Retail Sector
  • Health
  • IT & Diversified Sector
  • National & Global News
  • Tech & Science

Copyright © 2021 MirrorDaily.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Contact