The Commercial Biology of the Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina linn) on Macquarie Island - 1948

Taken from the report prepared by R Kenny:In this report our comparatively brief knowledge of the Elephant Seal at Macquarie Island (based only on one year's observations) have been augmented by abstracting notes from "The Natural History of the Elephant Seal" by L. Harrison Matthews Discovery Reports, vol. 1 p. 233. 1929., based on observations at South Georgia.The Elephant Seal herds at the two islands are comparable - at South Georgia the animals had been overfished almost to the point of extinction by 1885, but were then not hunted for many years, and by 1929 had "increased in numbers till at the present time they are probably as numerous as ever", and are now fished under Government regulation to prevent extermination; the Macquarie Island herd has a similar history.

本数据集描述内容取自R·肯尼撰写的报告：本报告中，我们基于仅一年观测所得的麦夸里岛（Macquarie Island）象海豹（Elephant Seal）相关认知相对有限，现通过摘录L·哈里森·马修斯1929年发表于《发现报告》（Discovery Reports）第1卷第233页的《象海豹自然史》中的相关笔记进行补充，该文献基于南乔治亚岛（South Georgia）的实地观测研究。两座岛屿的象海豹种群有着相似的演化历程：南乔治亚岛的象海豹曾在1885年因过度猎捕几近灭绝，此后数十年未遭捕猎，至1929年时“种群数量已恢复至历史峰值水平”，如今其猎捕活动受政府监管以避免种群彻底灭绝；麦夸里岛的象海豹种群也有着类似的发展历史。