Ecology Summary - Phoca largha

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Ecology of Phoca largha

Main Ref.	Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993
Remarks	Inhabits the southern edges of the pack ice from winter to early summer and coastal areas including river mouths, in late summer and autumn. Diet composition varies with the age of the seal; newly weaned pups feed on small crustaceans, advance to schooling fishes, larger crustaceans, and octopuses, and finally graduate to bottom dwelling fish and cephalopods (Ref. 1394). Those in their first year tend to eat mostly small crustaceans, algae, sticks and debris; 1 to 4 year olds mostly eat fishes, larger shrimps, and octopus, occasionally; 5 year olds consumed more benthic invertebrates like crabs and octopus (Ref. 119414).

Main Ref.

Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993

Remarks

Inhabits the southern edges of the pack ice from winter to early summer and coastal areas including river mouths, in late summer and autumn. Diet composition varies with the age of the seal; newly weaned pups feed on small crustaceans, advance to schooling fishes, larger crustaceans, and octopuses, and finally graduate to bottom dwelling fish and cephalopods (Ref. 1394). Those in their first year tend to eat mostly small crustaceans, algae, sticks and debris; 1 to 4 year olds mostly eat fishes, larger shrimps, and octopus, occasionally; 5 year olds consumed more benthic invertebrates like crabs and octopus (Ref. 119414).

Aquatic zones / Water bodies

	Marine - Neritic	Marine - Oceanic	Brackishwater	Freshwater
Marine zones / Brackish and freshwater bodies	supra-littoral zone littoral zone sublittoral zone	epipelagic mesopelagic epipelagic abyssopelagic hadopelagic	estuaries/lagoons/brackish seas mangroves marshes/swamps	rivers/streams lakes/ponds caves exclusively in caves

Highighted items on the list are where Phoca largha may be found.

Habitat

Substrate
Substrate Ref.
Special habitats
Special habitats Ref.

Associations

Ref.	Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993
Associations
Associated with
Association remarks
Parasitism

feeding

Feeding type	mainly animals (troph. 2.8 and up)
Feeding type Ref.	Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993
Feeding habit	hunting macrofauna (predator)
Feeding habit Ref.	Jefferson, T.A., S. Leatherwood and M.A. Webber, 1993

Trophic Level(s)

Estimation method	original sample		unfished population		Remark
Estimation method	Troph	s.e.	Troph	s.e.	Remark
From diet composition
From individual food items	3.99	0.84			Trophic level estimated from a number of food items using a randomized resampling routine.
Ref.

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