An Otago colony of sea lions has reached a major milestone after a successful breeding season which saw the birth of 38 pups.
For the first time in more than a century, the Otago Pakake/sea lion population has delivered more than 35 pups, putting it on track for official breeding colony status.
To be considered, at least 35 pups must be born for five seasons in a row, the Department of Conservation (Doc) says.
Pakake are the rarest sea lions in the world and until the early 1990s were effectively extinct on the mainland.
Shaun McConkey, the chairperson of the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust, told RNZ's Checkpoint programme today the breeding season had been "amazing". It was fantastic this milestone had been reached so soon, as breeding in the area had only begun in Christmas 1993.
Of the 38 new pups this season, McConkey said just over 50% were female and right now they were moving to a creching site.
McConkey said the females and their pup would usually gather at places where there was calm, shallow water so the pups could learn to swim.
"Last season there was a bit of a drop [in numbers], a lot of our females didn't have pups, so quite a few continued suckling their their pup from the previous year. A lot of them had the year off, so they were certainly raring to go for this season."
Nearly all of the colony were descendants of a sea lion named Mum, who died in 2010.
In 1993, Mum and her pup appeared in Dunedin and Doc confirmed it was likely the first pup to be born on the mainland in over 150 years. She went on to give birth to 11 pups in the Dunedin area.
McConkey said it was estimated 36 of the 38 new pups were descendants of Mum.
"We're starting to get some females coming up from a breeding colony at Stewart Island. When they arrive in Otago and find there are other females here some of them decide to stick around."
There were one or two females who had recently joined the colony and started having pups, he said.
This story was first published on rnz.co.nz |  |
