Foraging ecology of recolonising female New Zealand sea lions around the Otago Peninsula, New Zealand.

The New Zealand (NZ) sea lion, Phocarctos hookeri, is endemic to NZ and listed as threatened and nationally critical. It was extirpated from mainland NZ by the 1800s and it has only started recolonising part of its historical breeding range, the Otago Peninsula (OP), since the 1990s. This recolonisation has opened two areas of research: 1) data were needed for the management of interactions between humans and sea lions at sea and for marine habitat protection around the OP, and 2) comparison of data between the only three remnant breeding areas in the sub-Antarctic islands (hypothesised as marginal habitat) and the recolonising population. This thesis presents the results of the first study into the foraging ecology of the small recolonising population of female NZ sea lions inhabiting the OP. Up to 2010, 45 pups had been born at the OP, all descendants from a unique matriarch that emigrated from the sub-Antarctic North Auckland Islands (AI) breeding colony. During autumns 2008 to 2010, the foraging ecology, diet and condition of 13 female NZ sea lions born on the OP (all known-to-be alive ≥ 2 years old, including six during two different years) were investigated. They foraged within a small area around the OP (mean shore distance 4km), predominantly on shallow rocky reefs (