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Pinnipeds are a fascinating and charism atic group of m arine m am m als playing a crucial role as apex predators and sentinels of the functioning and health of m arine ecosystem s. Pinnipeds (i.e., Pinnipedia from Latin pinna “fin” and pes, pedis “foot”) belong to the order C arnivora com prising three living fam ilies: Otariidae (i.e., sea lions and fur seals), Odobenidae (i.e., walruses) and Phocidae (i.e., seals). They are found in the m ost extrem e environm ents in Polar R egions to the Earth’s equator in the tropics. Pinnipeds com prise about 34 species, of which at least 30% inhabit, distribute and breed perm anently in tropical zones from coastal and oceanic regions of the global ocean (see Fig. 1). Defining a pinniped species as tropical or subtropical is a challenging task because several species, including those from tem perate regions, m ay extend their geographic distributions into subtropical or tropical latitudes or are currently expanding their distributional ranges to these regions, and, in som e instances, som e colonies are tem porally or perm anently established (e.g., harbor seals, Phoca vitulina in the M exican Pacific, and hooded seals, Cystophora cristata, along the Southeastern coast of USA). For the purpose of this book, the global geographical thresholds used here as the criteria to select both tropical and subtropical species are set up betw een the Tropic of C ancer in the northern hem isphere at 23° 26' 16? N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hem isphere at 23° 26' 16? S for tropical pinnipeds, as well as the subtropical band (i.e., 38th parallel in each hem isphere) for subtropical species, as show n in Fig. 1. H ow ever, som e populations of sea lions and seals from the North and South hem ispheres are currently expanding their geographical ranges and spreading to new localities.

Palabras clave: tropical; subtropical; Pinnipeds

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