Northern Fur Seal Predicted Habitat Suitability, California

Jul 20, 2022
Description:

This dataset contains Predicted Habitat Suitability for the Northern Fur Sea (Callorhinus ursinus). Northern fur seals are members of the "eared seal" family (Otariidae).


Northern fur seals primarily inhabit two types of habitat: open ocean and rocky or sandy beaches on islands for resting, reproduction, and molting. Adult northern fur seals spend more than 300 days per year (about 80 percent of their time) at sea. During the summer and autumn they intermittently fast while on land and feed at sea. During the winter and spring they are pelagic, occupying the North Pacific Ocean as well as the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. In the open ocean, concentrations of northern fur seals may occur around oceanographic features—such as eddies, convergence-divergence zones, and frontal boundaries—because of the availability of prey in those places (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 2022-07-20.
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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