AnAge entry for Mirounga leonina

Classification (HAGRID: 02228)

Taxonomy: Kingdom: Animalia
    Phylum: Chordata
        Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
            Order: Carnivora
                Family: Phocidae
                    Genus: Mirounga
Species: Mirounga leonina
Common name: Southern elephant seal
Synonyms: Mirounga leonina crosetensis, Mirounga leonina falclandica, Mirounga leonina macquariensis, Phoca leonina, Macrorhinus leoninus macquariensis, Macrorhinus leoninus crosetensis

Maximum longevity: Not yet established
Observations: The total gestation time, of about 11.5 months, includes a 3 to 4 months period of delayed implantation [0443]. Males are typically much bigger than females. In the wild, males have been reported to live more than 23 years [0001], and there are anecdotal reports of animals living over 25 years. Their longevity in captivity has not been studied in detail, but one specimen lived 23.7 years [0671].

No information on metabolism is available.

[0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
[0443] Ronald Nowak (2003), Walker's Marine Mammals of the World
[0001] Carey and Judge (2000), Longevity Records: Life Spans of Mammals, Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish
[0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
[0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves