Species
South American Sea Lion
Regional Nesting Sites: Coastal and insular aggregations in South America are distributed from Brazil to the north of Peru.
Diet: They generally feed on fish, crustaceans and cephalopod caught in relatively shallow waters near the aggregations.
World breeding population: 150,000 to 250,000 estimated for South America. This is one of the most numerous marine mammals in the Patagonian Sea.
Conservation Status: Least concern (IUCN, 2008).
Main threats: Its principal threats come from the activity of fisheries. Besides competing for resources, they are affected by incidental mortality or by being caught in fishing gear, and very frequently they are the target of gunfire by fishermen. The El Niño events also have a negative impact on the populations of the Pacific.
