Stunning camera footage may provide clues about how to further protect the Australian sea lion, a keystone species struggling to survive as human activities have taken their toll.
As detailed by the Guardian, cameras on eight female sea lions from two colonies captured nearly 90 hours of footage that helped scientists map more than 1,900 square miles of their underwater habitats, from seagrass meadows to reefs.
"Information has been so elusive, because they're feeding at the bottom of the sea," Professor Simon Goldsworthy told the Guardian. "Now we get this amazing, exquisite detail. They're giving us a window into their world that we haven't had before."
After sedating and providing anesthesia to the creatures, the team used resin to attach fabric with cameras to the sea lions' fur. The procedure is temporary, with the equipment designed to fall off when the marine mammals molt.
The team selected adult females because they return to land to nurse, making it easy to retrieve the equipment. Using the animals to capture the footage also eliminated the need for research vessels, reducing noise pollution and eliminating the possibility of toxic fumes from dirty fuel.
The project was funded by the government-backed National Environmental Science Program and the Ecological Society of Australia, and the team published its findings in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
Goldsworthy, one of the study's authors, compared the sea lions' ability to navigate the underwater terrain to how humans have intimate knowledge of their roads and communities, with the animals even demonstrating varying preferences for which fish they prefer to hunt.
"They have a mental map of their environment, and they are leading you to places of profound significance for them," he explained to the Guardian.
According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, the number of sea lions has declined by more than 60% over the past 40 years. Once hunted for their fur, the creatures are now mainly threatened by gillnets — thin mesh nets used by commercial fisheries to trap sharks. It is not uncommon for the marine mammals to get caught in the gillnets and drown.
Described by the Conservation Council of South Australia as a "keystone species," the sea lions attract tourists to Australia and are crucial for a healthy ecosystem.
"Without them, the whole ecosystem around them is thrown completely out of balance or fails to survive at all," the organization wrote.
Now, the team's footage could be a game changer, according to Goldsworthy.
Even though the sea lions are endangered, there is reason to hope they can rebound with the proper support. Elsewhere, two types of rare birds are breeding in their native Welsh wetlands for the first time in hundreds of years after restoration efforts.
Almost extinct in the early 1990s, Siamese crocodiles are recovering thanks to the work of conservationist organizations, with 60 hatchlings born in the wild this year.
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