Food consumption and growth of marine mammals.

<FONT>This thesis contains 35 studies on food consumption and growth of captive marine marinmals. Seventeen studies concern food intake and growth records of 9 odontocete species (toothed whales), varying in body weight from 30 to 4500 kg: the killer whale, beluga, false killer whale, Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, Amazon river dolphin, common dolphin, dusky dolphin, Commerson's dolphin, and the harbour porpoise (chapter 2). The other eighteen studies concern 8 pinniped species (true seals, sea lions, and walruses), in which the adult male body weight varied between 110 and 1400 kg, and adult female weight between 70 and 800 kg: the Southern elephant seal, grey seal, harbour seal, Steller sea lion, South American sea lion, California sea lion, South African fur seal, and Pacific walrus (chapters 3,4, and 5). In each study, the results were compared to available information on food consumption and growth of wild and captive conspecifics, and were considered with respect to the life histories of the species.