Northern Elephant Seal Predicted Habitat Suitability, California

Jul 21, 2022
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Description:

This dataset contains predicted habitat suitability for the Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga angustirostris.


The northern elephant seal is the largest of the “true” seals in the Northern Hemisphere. Adult males use their large, inflatable noses during the winter breeding season to resonate sound when vocally threatening each other. The largest colonies of northern elephant seals are found off southern California in the Channel Islands. They have one of the longest migrations of any mammal; some have been recorded traveling over 13,000 miles roundtrip. Northern elephant seals were once thought to be extinct due to commercial sealing in the 1800s. A small population survived in Mexico and the population began to steadily increase in the early 1900s. Today, robust populations of northern elephant seals in the U.S. and Mexico are derived from those few hundred individuals that survived in Mexico (NOAA 2022).


The Predicted Habitat Suitability maps show the mean habitat suitability score for the species, as defined in CWHR. CWHR defines habitat suitability as NO SUITABILITY (0), LOW (0.33), MEDIUM (0.66), or HIGH (1) for reproduction, cover, and feeding for each species in each habitat stage (habitat type, size, and density combination). The mean is the average of the reproduction, cover, and feeding scores, and can be interpreted as LOW (less than 0.34), MEDIUM (0.34-0.66), and HIGH (greater than 0.66) suitability.The CWHR Predicted Habitat Suitability rasters are named according to the 4 digit alpha-numeric species CWHR ID code. The CWHR Species Lookup Table contains a record for each species including its CWHR ID, scientific name, common name, and range map revision history (available for download at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR ).

Data Provided By:
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Content date:
This dataset was acquired on 2022-07-21
Citation:
California Department of Fish and Wildlife California Interagency Wildlife Task Group.

Data is available for download at:
Spatial Resolution:
30 (Meter)
Contact Organization:
CA Dept Fish and Wildlife
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Use Constraints:
The Predicted Habitat Suitability model results are limited by the accuracy and scale of the input data. Please note that the data is represented in raster format with a pixel size of 30 meters. In the case of species that rely on habitat types that are difficult to map at this scale, such as riparian or wetland habitat types, the amount of representative habitat may be underestimated or inacurately mapped due to aggregation into pixels with a majority type not used by the species.
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Tags:
habitat, mammals, environment, natural resources, elephant seal, wildlife, california, northern elephant seal, seal, species, biota
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