Weights of northern elephant seal weanlings from Año Nuevo Reserve

Long-term observations of foraging success at the population scale are key to understanding demographic and ecological patterns. Northern elephant seals, Mirounga angustirostris, are capital breeders and the resources delivered to the pup during the 4-week lactation period are related to both the past foraging success of the mother and the future survival of the pup post-weaning. We collected weight and basic morphometric data from more than 7,000 recently weaned elephant seals at the Año Nuevo colony in central California, USA beginning in 1976 and extending through the present. This archive will be updated periodically as new data are collected. The PIs would like to be informed of manuscripts intended for publication that use this dataset. Depending on our level of interest and how much a paper depends on the data, co-authorship might be requested. Funding for this project was provided by a variety of public and private organizations including: NSF, ONR, JIP, and the Moore, Packard and Sloan foundations (please consult PI's for a complete list). Funding was also provided by generous donations to Año Nuevo Reserve and UC Santa Cruz.