Behavioral Biology
Department of Animal Behavior
University of Bielefeld

PO Box 10 01 31
D-337501 Bielefeld
Germany

Tel: +49 (521) 106-2836

Link zu Fritz Trillmich
 [Link 1]

E-Mail an Fritz Trillmich senden [Link 2]

Abstract

Troubles of life in the tropics: The life history of the Galapagos sea lion

Life history represents an animal’s adjustments over evolutionary and ontogenetic time to its environment within the constraints of its morphology, physiology and behavior. Seals and sea lions are amphibiously living mammals that occur most abundantly in cold water systems. I explore the consequences of life in the tropical Pacific for the Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki). This species lives within a small patch of a cold water system, the Galapagos archipelago, that is on average comparatively poor in marine productivity and characterized by frequent strong fluctuation in productivity. We studied the effects of this exceptional situation on growth, maturation, reproductive decisions and ontogenetic development to independence and found substantial plasticity in life history decisions in response to this highly unpredictable environment.

Brief CV

Studied molecular biology at the University of Freiburg 1966-1971

PhD (Dr. rer. nat.): Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich, Germany, 1973-1975 supervised by Prof. Wolfgang Wickler on „Pair bonding and invididual recognition in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus)”.

Post-Doc: 1976 and 1977 Max-Planck Society, Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie (Institute of Animal Behavioural Physiology), Seewiesen, Germany.

Researcher: January 1978 – March 1990; at the Max-Planck-Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie (Max-Planck Institute of Animal Behavioral Physiology), Seewiesen, Germany.

Full professor: April 1990 – present; Lehrstuhl fuer Verhaltensforschung (Behavioral Biology), University of Bielefeld, Germany

Visiting Scientist:

• September 1982 – February 1983: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Physiological Research Laboratory, in La Jolla, San Diego, guest of Prof. Gerald L. Kooyman.

• March-April 1996 - University of California at Santa Cruz, Marine Biology Laboratory, guest of Prof. D.P. Costa and Prof B.J. LeBoeuf

• November and December 2000 University of Groningen, Netherlands, guest of Prof. F.-J. Weissing.

• February 2005, University of Oklahoma, USA, guest of Prof. D. Mock

Field work:

October 1971 to February 1972	US Antarctic Research Program, NSF, at Cape Hallett, Antarctica
May 1976 – June 1978	PostDoc-research on the social behaviour of Galápagos fur seals and sea lions as well as marine iguanas, Galápagos, Ecuador
1979 – 1994	every year one to three months further work on the behavioral ecology of Galápagos fur seals and sea lions, and from 1987 on marine iguanas
Jan. and Feb. 1983	Research on the South American fur seal in Peru
September 1997, February/March 1999	Field work on the social structure of the snail Cichlid, Lamprologus ocellatus, at Lake Tanganyika, Zambia
August – September 1998, September – October 2000	Population ecology of wild guinea pigs (Cavia aperea) in Uruguay
2003 to 2011	About one month per year work on social structure and demography of sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki) in the Galápagos

Societies:

• Council member of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, UK (1992-1996)

• President of the "Ethologische Gesellschaft e.V." (2007-2010)

 

Associate Editor:

• Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (Associate Editor 1994 – 1997, thereafter Advisory Ed., Associate Ed. 2001 -2010)

• International Journal of Mammalogy (Associate Editor 2000 - 2007)

Relevant Publications

Trillmich F, Ono KA (eds) (1991). Pinnipeds and El Niño: responses to environmental stress, Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.

Trillmich F (1981). Mutual mother-pup recognition in Galápagos fur seals and sea lions: cues used and functional significance. Behaviour 78: 21-42.

Trillmich F, Limberger D (1985). Drastic effects of El Niño on Galápagos pinnipeds. Oecologia 67: 19-22.

Trillmich F (1986). Maternal investment and sex-allocation in the Galápagos fur seal, Arctocephalus galapagoensis. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 19: 157-164.

Trillmich F, Lechner E (1986). Milk of the Galápagos fur seal and sea lion, with a comparison of the milk of eared seals (Otariidae). J Zool Lond 209: 271-277.

Trillmich F (1990). The behavioral ecology of maternal effort in fur seals and sea lions. Behaviour 114: 1-20.

Trillmich F (1996). Parental investment in pinnipeds. Advances in the Study of Behavior 25: 533-577.

Horning M, Trillmich F (1999). Lunar cycles in diel prey migrations exert a stronger effect on the diving of juveniles than adult Galápagos fur seals. Proc Roy Soc London B 266:1127-1132.

Trillmich F, Kooyman GL (2001). Field metabolic rate of lactating female Galápagos fur seals (Arctocephalus galapagoensis): the influence of offspring age and environment. Comp Biochem Physiol 129A: 741-749.

Trillmich F, Weissing FJ (2006). Lactation patterns of pinnipeds are not explained by optimization of maternal energy delivery rates. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 60:137-149.

Wolf JBW, Mawdsley D, Trillmich F, James R (2007). Social structure in a colonial mammal: Unravelling hidden structural layers and their foundations by network analysis. Anim Behav 74: 1293-1302.

Wolf JBW, Tautz D, Trillmich F (2007). Galapagos and Californian sea lions are separate species: genetic analysis of the genus Zalophus and its implications for conservation management. Frontiers in Zoology 2007, 4. doi:10.1186/1742-9994-4-20 [Link 3]

Wolf JBW, Trillmich F (2007). Fine-scale site fidelity in a breeding colony of the Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus californianus wollebaeki): a prerequisite for social networking? Oecologia152: 553-567.

Trillmich F, Wolf JBW (2008). Parent-offspring and sibling conflict in the Galápagos fur seals and sea lions. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62: 363-375.

Wolf JBW, Harrod C, Brunner S, Salazar S, Trillmich F, Tautz D. (2008). Tracing early stages of species differentiation: ecological, morphological and genetic divergence of Galápagos sea lion populations. BMC Evolutionary Biology 8:150 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-150.

Wolf JBW, Trillmich F (2008). Kin in space. Social viscosity in a spatially and genetically sub-structured network. Proc Roy Soc London B 275: 2063-2069.

Pörschmann U, Trillmich F, Mueller B, Wolf JBW 2010. Male reproductive success and its behavioural correlates in a polygynous mammal, the Galápagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki). Mol Ecol 19: 2574-2586.

Mueller B, Pörschmann U, Wolf JBW, Trillmich F (2011). Growth under uncertainty: The influence of marine variability on early development of Galapagos sea lions. Marine Mammal Sci. 27: 350-365.