Two novel research approaches were developed to facilitate controlled access to, and long-term monitoring of, juvenile Steller sea lions for periods longer than typically afforded by traditional field
1. High juvenile mortality rates are typical of many long-lived marine vertebrate predators. Insufficient development in dive and forage ability are considered key drivers of this. However, direct lin
Table 1. Mean and median life expectancies (in years, with 95% confidence intervals) for bottlenose dolphins in zoological care as calculated by Kaplan-Meier analyses. Time periodMedian LE (CI)Mean LE
Population dynamics of long-lived vertebrates depend critically on adult survival, yet factors affecting survival and covariation between survival and other vital rates in adults remain poorly examine
Table 4. Model selection of apparent survival probability (Phi) for model set 2: lipid weight contaminant classes. QAICcModelNo.ModelQAICcΔQAICcweightslikelihoodparametersDeviance{Φ (g)}220.570.0000.2
