Elizabeth Perry, Ph.D.

Research Associate

I am studying fostering behavior of grey seals in Canada and the United Kingdom by observing mothers and their pups during the nursing period. My hypothesis is that females which do foster pups are actually nursing relatives and, therefore, kin selection is playing a role in the incidence of fostering. To test this theory, I am comparing the DNA fingerprints of mother-pup pairs to those of foster pairs. Additionally, I am analysing the population structure of a small, isolated breeding group of an Antarctic seal species, the Weddell seal.

Representative Publications:

Perry, E.A. and J.M. Terhune. (In Press). Variation in harp seal underwater vocalizations among three breeding locations. Journal of Zoology, London.

Schwartz, M.K., D.J. Boness, C.M. Schaeff, P. Majluf, E.A. Perry and R.C. Fleischer. (In Press). Female solicited extra-pair matings in Humboldt penguins fail to produce extra-pair fertilizations. Behavioural Ecology.

Ambs, S.M, D.J. Boness, W.D. Bowen, E.A. Perry and R.C. Fleischer. (In Press). Proximate factors associated with high levels of extra-consort fertilization in polygynous grey seals. Animal Behavior.

Perry, E.A. and W. Amos. 1998. Genetic and behavioural evidence that harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) females mate with multiple males. Marine Mammal Science 14: 178-182.

Perry, E.A., D.J. Boness and R.C. Fleischer. 1998. DNA fingerprinting evidence of non-filial nursing in grey seals. Molecular Ecology 7: 81-85.

Carr, S.M. and E.A. Perry. 1997. Intra- and interfamilial systematic relationships of phocid seals as indicated by mitochondrial DNA sequences. In Molecular Genetics of Marine Mammals. A.E. Dizon, S.J. Chivers and W.F. Perrin (Eds.) Society of Marine Mammalogy Special Publication 3: 277-290.

Perry, E.A., S.M. Carr, S. Bartlett and W.S. Davidson. 1995. The evolution of reproductive behavior in pagophilic seals of the northwest Atlantic as indicated by mitochondrial DNA sequences. Journal of Mammalogy 76: 22-31.

Perry, E.A. and G.B. Stenson. 1992. Observations on nursing behaviour of hooded seals, Cystophora cristata. Behaviour 122: 1-10.

Perry, E.A. and D. Renouf. 1988. Further studies on the role of harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) pup vocalizations in maintaining mother-pup contact. Canadian Journal of Zoology 66: 934-938.