Age estimation and growth patterns in young harbor seals (Phoca vitulina vitulina) during rehabilitation

To study patterns in behavior, fitness, and population dynamics, estimating the age of the individuals is often a necessity. Specifically, age estimation of young animals is very important for animal rehabilitation centers because it may determine if the animal should be taken in and, if so, what care is optimal for its rehabilitation. Accurate age estimation is also important to determine the growth pattern of an individual, and it is needed to correctly interpret the influence of early body condition on its growth trajectories. The purpose of our study was to find body measurements that function as good age estimators in young (up to 3 months old) harbor seals (Phoca vitulina vitulina), placing emphasis on noninvasive techniques that can be used in the field. To meet this goal, body mass (BM), dorsal standard length (DSL), upper canine length (CL), body condition (BC), and sex were determined from 45 Harbor Seal pups of known age. Generalized additive mixed models were fitted to find how well these morphometric measures predicted age, and the results from the selected model were used to compute growth curves and to create a practical table to determine the age of young animals in the field. We found that both DSL and CL-and to some extent sex-were useful predictors for estimating age in young harbor seals and that the growth rate of pups raised in captivity is significantly lower than for those raised in the wild. In addition, we found no evidence for compensatory growth, given that animals that arrived at the center with a poor BM or BC continued to show lower BM or BC throughout almost the entire rehabilitation period.