Fabiani, A., F. Galimberti, S. Sanvito and A. R. Hoelzel (2006)
Relatedness and site fidelity at the southern slephant seal (Mirounga leonina)
breeding colony in the Falkland Islands.
Animal Behaviour: In press.

Southern elephant seals are highly gregarious during the breeding season, and
both sexes show fidelity to the colony. We used microsatellite DNA analysis to
assess kinship among seals in the main colony on the Falkland Islands.
Specifically, we investigated whether females tend to cluster with close kin and
avoid mating with male kin. We also tested expectations for kinship patterns
based on sex differences in site fidelity and philopatry. Relatedness within a
harem was significantly greater than between harems for only two of seven harems
and was not related to harem size. Some long-term associations of female kin
were found within harems, including associations of up to 5 years, but kinship
among these females was not significantly higher on average than among dyads of
other returning females. There was no pattern suggesting that females tended to
choose harems with harem holders that were either more or less related to them
than alternative harem holders. Overall, pairwise comparisons of females showed
significantly greater kinship than pairwise comparisons of males, consistent
with previous studies suggesting greater male dispersal.