Birthsite Fidelity Concentrates Conservation Risk

A long‑term mark‑recapture analysis of northern elephant seals at Año Nuevo shows most breeding females return within a few hundred meters of their natal site (median distances ~1,296 ft; 25% within 407 ft). Such extreme natal philopatry concentrates births on very limited beach areas, raising local vulnerability to habitat loss, storms, disease and inbreeding. — If many marine mammals (and other species) show tight birthsite fidelity, conservation policy must treat individual protected sites as high‑leverage strategic assets whose loss would have outsized population and genetic consequences.