Rev. biol. mar. oceanogr. 48(3): 613-622

Article

Diet plasticity of the South American sea lion in Chile: stable isotope evidence

Lily Muñoz¹, Guido Pavez¹, Renato A. Quiñones^2,3, Doris Oliva¹, Macarena Santos^1,4 and Maritza Sepúlveda¹

¹Centro de Investigación y Gestión de los Recursos Naturales (CIGREN), Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso, Av. Gran Bretaña 1111, Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile

²Programa de Investigación Marina de Excelencia (PIMEX), Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Casilla 160-C, Universidad de Concepción, Chile

³Interdisciplinary Center for Aquaculture Research (INCAR-FONDAP), Universidad de Concepción, O’Higgins 1695, Concepción, Chile

⁴Centro de Investigación Eutropia, Ahumada 131 Oficina 912, Santiago, Chile

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Diet studies of the South American sea lion (SASL) in Chile suggest that this species is an opportunistic and generalist predator whose diet varies depending on the distribution of prey species and spatial and temporal variations in the abundance of these dams. However, these studies have been sporadic, geographically limited and based on stomach content analysis, which does not allow an integral analysis of the composition of the diet of this species and its potential spatial and temporal variability. In this study we analyzed the diet of the SASL in 3 geographic zones of the coast of Chile using analysis of stable isotopes d13C and d15N on hair and skin tissues. In the northern zone, the main prey species consumed by SASL were Isacia conceptionis (19.5%) for skin and Cilus gilberti (23.3%) for hair; in the central zone were Thyrsites atun (40.1%) for skin and Strangomera bentincki (31.1%) for hair, whereas in the southern zone the main species were pelagic fish (such as T. atun and Trachurus murphyi, 20.8%) for skin and farm-raised salmonids (20.7%) for hair analysis. These differences indicate variation in the composition of its diet. Variations between the analyzed tissues and also with previous studies suggest that this species is capable of adapting to intra- and inter-annual variations in the presence/absence of its prey.

Key words:  Mixed models, MixSir, Trophic specialization, d13C, d15N, Otaria flavescens, Chile