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Behavioural and environmental correlates of Philophthalmus zalophi infections and their impact on survival in juvenile Galapagos sea lions

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Abstract

Parasitic infections can play a major role in the dynamics of animal populations by influencing the development and survival of juveniles. Understanding how intrinsic and extrinsic factors shape individual parasitisation and affect long-term consequences of infections is therefore of prime importance for conservation management. Galapagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki) provide a good model system to assess the impact of environmental and behavioural differences on parasitisation. Their environment is characterised by seasonal changes in sea surface temperatures (SST), and the slow transition to independence in juveniles goes along with major behavioural changes. The present study focused on infections with Philophthalmus zalophi, a digenetic trematode, which is regularly found in the ocular cavity of young sea lions. Long-term data on P. zalophi infections were collected from a sea lion colony located in the centre of the Galapagos archipelago (0°45′S, 90°160′W, 2007–2014). The probability to become infected differed between age classes and was influenced by the SST at the time of capture. About 16 % of the animals infected during the peak of infections developed severe clinical signs which had long-term consequences for juvenile survival. The transition to independence appeared to be a particularly sensitive period when negative consequences of previous parasitic infections exerted the greatest influence on juvenile survival. Our results suggest that the prevalence of infections and thus the negative implications for juvenile survival may increase with broad-scale climatic changes.

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Acknowledgments

We are most grateful to Fritz Trillmich and Oliver Krüger who allowed us to work with the long-term data set that exist for the sea lion population on Caamaño and who gave valuable comments on the manuscript. The permission to conduct this study was provided by the Galápagos National Park Service, and we are grateful for the close collaboration with the Park. We would like to thank the German Research Foundation (TR 105/18, TR 105/18-2), Galapagos Conservancy, Lindblad/National Geographic and the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association for funding. Additionally, we want to thank the former PhD students and numerous field assistants that helped collecting the data during the course of the study. Two anonymous reviewers provided valuable comments on the manuscript. This publication is contribution number 2111 of the Charles Darwin Research Foundation.

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Correspondence to Kristine Meise.

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The study presented here complies with the laws of Ecuador and was conducted in accordance with the Galapagos National Park’s protocols for field trips and camping in the Galapagos Islands. All research, animal handling and instrumentation procedures were reviewed and approved by the Galapagos National Park Service under the permits and was performed under permission of the Galapagos National Park Service (PC-001-03 Ext. 5, PC-043-09, PC-007-11, PC-026-12, PC-0015-2013, PC-0031-2014).

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Reviewed by: J. Denkinger and an undisclosed expert.

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Meise, K., Garcia-Parra, C. Behavioural and environmental correlates of Philophthalmus zalophi infections and their impact on survival in juvenile Galapagos sea lions. Mar Biol 162, 2107–2117 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-015-2740-7

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