Tales of an old sea lion

Abstract

The life history of male California sea lions is the result of challenges and adaptations that have been passed down through thousands of generations. Although there remain many questions, we have been able to track and detail certain behaviors at their different life stages and to propose new hypotheses about their life strategies. For example, we now know that males remain with their mothers during their first year. Later, when they are young and later as independent juveniles, often migrate and inhabit other islands to improve their hunting strategies. Upon reaching the subadult stage, they are still sexually immature but already making their first attempts to reproduce. It is in the adult stage when they confront other males to claim their reproductive territory. Although studies have established reproduction as their ultimate life strategy goal, it is possible that males also fight to remain in the colony where several generations of their families lived. These results and hypotheses have been taken into account in conservation and management plans for the species in Mexico.