London, Aug 26 (ANI): Female elephant seals, particularly southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonine), have been cited as a model of extreme polygyny.
But Australian scientists have found that some female elephant seals refuse to play the polygyny game, staying in the ocean and mating with whom they chose rather than joining the beachside harems.
The finding casts doubt on the long-held belief that female elephant seals are submissive players in a highly chauvinistic mating game, New Scientist reported.
Every year, females come ashore to breed with dominant males, called "beach masters", in harems that can number from one dominant male to 270 females.
Ian Wilkinson at the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage in Coffs Harbour, Australia, and colleagues fitted plastic tags to pups born on Marion Island between 1983 and 2007.
Of 1032 females, 794 returned to the island for more than one breeding season - it is presumed the rest died.
Of these, 549 skipped at least one breeding season but still gave birth the following year.
Satellite tags fixed to two of the AWOL females revealed that both were far from land during the breeding season. (ANI)
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