Rebecca R. McIntosh

Phillip Island Nature Parks · Conservation

One of the most critical phases in the life of petrels (Procellariiformes) is at fledging when young birds pass from parental dependence on land to an independent life at sea. To mitigate mortality at this time, rescue programs are implemented near breeding sites around the world, especially for birds grounded by artificial lights. We evaluated the...

In recent years, Australian governments and fishing industry associations have developed guiding principles aimed at reducing the impact of fishing on non-target species and the benthos and increasing community awareness of their efforts. To determine whether they reduced seal entanglement in lost fishing gear and other marine debris, we analysed A...

The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) population at Seal Bay Conservation Park, South Australia, is estimated to be declining at a rate of 1.14% per breeding season. To better understand the potential causes of this decline, survival rates were examined to 14 yr of age for eight cohorts marked as pups (aged 0.17 yr) between 1991 and 2002. Appa...

Dietary remains recovered from Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) digestive tracts and regurgitate samples from Seal Bay ( Kangaroo Island, South Australia) were used to identify prey species consumed. Four of eight digestive tracts collected (50%) contained prey items located only in the stomach. On the basis of biomass reconstruction of cepha...

Marine ecosystems in southeastern Australia are responding rapidly to climate change. We monitored the diet of the Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus), a key marine predator, over 17 years (1998–2014) to examine temporal changes. Frequency of occurrence (FO) of prey was used as a proxy for ecosystem change. Hard part analysis ide...

To inform the 2021 State of the Environment Report

Marine predators recovering from historic, commercial, over-harvesting can create conservation challenges when they prey on vulnerable species. Pinniped predation of seabirds presents one such challenge and identifying the source colonies experiencing seal predation are needed to inform conservation management and decision planning. Here, we presen...

Plastic in the ocean affects ecosystem health and entangles wildlife, including fur seals that become trapped in trawl net fragments, likely originating from net repairs at sea. The innovative Bins on Boats project, funded by the Victorian Government and carried out by Phillip Island Nature Parks and South East Trawl Fishing Industry Association (S...

Fur seal populations in the Southern Hemisphere were plundered in the late 1700s and early 1800s to provide fur for a clothing industry. Millions of seals were killed resulting in potentially major ecosystem changes across the Southern Hemisphere, the consequences of which are unknown today. Following more than a century of population suppression,...

Here, we describe and evaluate the “bins on boats” project undertaken in Victoria, Australia, which aimed to reduce marine pollution that causes entanglement among Australian fur seals on the Victorian coastline of Bass Strait. This program represents a successful case study in how conservation managers, industry, government, and researchers can co...

Globally, the bycatch of marine mammals in fisheries represents the greatest source of human-caused mortality that threatens the sustainability of many populations and species. The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) is an endangered species, whose populations off South Australia (SA) have been subject to bycatch in a demersal gillnet fishery ta...

The rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major concern for wildlife and ecosystem health globally. Genetic determinants of AMR have become indicators of anthropogenic pollution due to their greater association with humans and rarer presence in environments less affected by humans. The objective of this study was to determine the d...

The Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) has experienced a slower than expected population recovery since the end of the commercial sealing era, with a high third trimester abortion rate. There is currently no known proximate cause. Coxiella burnetii (Cb) is a well-known cause of abortion in domestic and wildlife species and an im...

The rapid emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major concern for wildlife and ecosystem health globally. Genetic determinants of AMR have become indicators of anthropogenic pollution due to their greater association with humans and rarer presence in environments less affected by humans. The objective of this study was to determine the d...

Like most sea lions, Australian sea lions are benthic foragers with prolonged lactation, extensive parental care, complex social interactions, mild-moderate polygyny, are relatively long-lived and near apex predators. They have been well studied in regards to population dynamics, foraging ecology, parent-offspring behavior and social communication;...

The Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) resulted from an emigration by South African fur seals (A. p. pusillus) across the Indian Ocean 18,000 to 12,000 years ago. The sub-species look and behave similarly. The Australian fur seal has a smaller range, smaller population density and smaller total population probably because waters...

Per and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) exposure was investigated in Australian pinnipeds. Concentrations of 16 PFAS was measured in the livers of Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea), Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) and a long-nosed Fur Seal (Arctocephalus forsteri) pup sampled between 2017 and 2020 from colonies in Sout...

Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA or drones) have become a powerful tool for use in spatial and temporal ecology. Major benefits for environmental management, including improved accuracy and precision for population monitoring of fauna, are being realized. We used Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) as a model system to assess how counts and...

We are launching the "Annual SealSpotter Challenge" where Citizen Scientists around the globe count Australian fur seals and contribute to research and conservation. This newsletter provides further information around the launch and celebrates project milestones.

Penguins face a wide range of threats. Most observed population changes have been negative and have happened over the last 60 years. Today, populations of 11 of the 18 penguin species are decreasing. Here we present a review that synthesizes details of threats faced by the world’s 18 species of penguins. We discuss alterations to their environment...

Adverse impacts of marine litter is documented on >1400 species, including marine megafauna (fish, birds, sea turtles and mammals). The primary impacts include ingestion and entanglement, and there is increasing concern about chemical contamination via ingestion. Numerous survey approaches and monitoring programs have been developed and implemented...

Background Accurate time-energy budgets summarise an animal’s energy expenditure in a given environment, and are potentially a sensitive indicator of how an animal responds to changing resources. Deriving accurate time-energy budgets requires an estimate of time spent in different activities and of the energetic cost of that activity. Bio-loggers (...

Update of Citizen Science Project "SealSpotter" to provide information and feedback to collaborators and share experiences of using the portal.

Effective ecosystem-based management requires estimates of abundance and population trends of species of interest. Trend analyses are often limited due to sparse or short-term abundance estimates for populations that can be logistically difficult to monitor over time. Therefore it is critical to assess regularly the quality of the metrics in long-t...

Using drones to detect fur seal entanglement in marine debris

Technical advances in monitoring devices, specifically drones, are allowing managers and scientists to obtain quality information on ecosystem health with minimal disturbance to ecosystems and the wildlife they support. Temporal and spatial indicators of ecosystem health, such as population size and/or abundance estimates of marine mammals are the...

Technical advances in monitoring devices, specifically drones, are allowing managers and scientists to obtain quality information on ecosystem health with minimal disturbance to ecosystems and the wildlife they support. Temporal and spatial indicators of ecosystem health, such as population size and/or abundance estimates of marine mammals are the...

Background. Accurate time-energy budgets summarise an animal’s energy expenditure in a given environment and are potentially a sensitive indicator of how an animal responds to changing resources. Deriving accurate time-energy budgets requires a precise measure of time spent in different activities, and an estimate of the energetic cost of that acti...

Background. Accurate time-energy budgets summarise an animal’s energy expenditure in a given environment and are potentially a sensitive indicator of how an animal responds to changing resources. Deriving accurate time-energy budgets requires a precise measure of time spent in different activities, and an estimate of the energetic cost of that acti...

This is a literature review on the impacts of large mid-water trawl vessels, targeting small pelagic species, on species protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The review includes EPBC Act protected species including Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus), New Zealand fur seals (A...

Repeated pup censuses for the Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) have been performed across the species’ range every five years since 2002 to monitor population trends. Live pup numbers were estimated at 20 pupping sites using one of the following methods: capture-mark-resight, direct count, or count from aerial photograph. From...

A technical review to evaluate existing work relating to the application, development and trial of marine mammal mitigation devices was undertaken to assess the availability and effectiveness of mitigation measures that could be used in mid-water trawl fisheries for small pelagic species. Where appropriate the review drew on lessons learnt from tra...

During a study of the demographics of the Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea), the sex ratio and morphology were obtained from 128 pups at Seal Bay Conservation Park over three breeding seasons (2002–03, 2004 and 2005–06). Gross necropsies were also performed. Dead pups were small and young, averaging 8.0 and 7.0 kg in weight, and 75.2 and 71.3...

Context. The Australian sea lion population at Seal Bay Conservation Park, South Australia, was estimated to be declining at a rate of 1.14% per breeding season, on the basis of maximum counts of live pups in each of 13 breeding seasons (Shaughnessy et al. 2006). The reliability of the pup-production estimates used to identify this decline is uncer...

Nest productivity among the White-bellied Sea-Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) population on Kangaroo Island (South Australia) was monitored over 11 breeding seasons between 1985 and 1999. Territories were assessed against standardised measures of relative isolation from human disturbance and assigned to Low-, Moderate- or High-disturbance categories...

The Australian sea lion Neophoca cinerea is an endemic species listed as vulnerable under the Commonwealth 'Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act' and as Endangered by IUCN. Assessing its abundance is difficult because of its supra-annual (17 to 18 mo) breeding cycle, and pupping seasons that are extended (about 6 mo but varying...

Commercial sealers exterminated the original fur seal population at Macquarie Island in the early 1800s. The first breeding record since the sealing era was not reported until March 1955. Three species of fur seal now occur at Macquarie Island, the Antarctic (Arctocephalus gazella), subantarctic (A. tropicalis) and New Zealand (A. forsteri) fur sea...

The status of the Australian sea lion Neophoca cinerea at eight sites on Kangaroo Island was assessed using criteria adopted by the National Seal Strategy Group based on numbers of pups counted between 1985 and 2005. Each site was allocated to one of three categories. At the Seal Slide, 1 to 11 pups were born over nine pupping seasons and it is cla...

During a study of the life history and population demographics of the Australian sea lion Neophoca cinerea by RRM, infestations with the anopluran louse Antarctophthirus microchir were frequently found. This enabled the distribution of this louse on the bodies of sea lions to be determined. Sea lions were examined on several islands. The habitat wh...

The Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) differs from other temperate otariids because of its protracted and aseasonal breeding cycle that is temporally asynchronous across its range. The life history and population dynamics of this species are poorly understood as are the evolutionary processes that have driven the life history of this species....

Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea) pup counts have been conducted at monthly intervals at Seal Bay Conservation Park, South Australia, since 1983. The protracted breeding season of the Australian sea lion causes difficulties for estimating pup production as simple counts of pups are likely to underestimate pup abundance. Here we describe the us...

Pups of the Australian sea lion have been counted at Seal Bay for 20 pup- ping seasons, 1973-74 to 2002-03. Temporal changes in counts of live pups over the course of each pupping season were fitted to Gaussian (nor - mal) curves to determine objectively the date when pup numbers reached their peak. The mean interval between pupping seasons was 532...

This study investigated the development of diving in 21 New Zealand fur seal pups, Arctocephalus forsteri (Lesson, 1828), prior to weaning at Cape Gantheaume, Kangaroo island. Diving behaviour was examined using time-depth recorders, which were deployed during two time periods, 5 months prior to weaning (n = 6) and 2 months prior to weaning (n = 15...

The Hooded Plover Thinornis rubricollis is a threatened, sexually monomorphic wading bird that occurs in two allopatric populations in eastern and western Australia, We used a PCR-based molecular sexing technique to sex captured birds from both populations. We found 69% of adults captured at a salt-lake in Western Australia were male. We tested for...

Little grassbirds (Megalurus gramineus) are small, sexually monomorphic passerines that live in reed beds, lignum swamps and salt marshes in southern Australia. The breeding biology and patterns of sex allocation of the little grassbird were investigated over a single breeding season. Our observations of this species in the Edithvale Wetland Reserv...