Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 12/28/2008 - 08:37
Forums
Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

JEff,

The following questions are for the seal team! 

1.) How many seals has the team sampled so far?  2.) How many do they hope to sample by the end of the expedition?  3.) What is the heaviest and what is the lightest seal by weight so far?  4.) Is there any surprises or unexpected discoveries so far in all the data they have collected so far? 

 

Thanx and keep all the great videos and photos coming!

 

Scooter Youst

Co-worker of Jeff 

Tue, 12/30/2008 - 10:53

Jeff Peneston

Scooter,
Sorry it took me an extra day to get the answers from the seal team but here they come.    The team has sampled 56 seals so far and hope to sample a total of 100 before the end.  They also have proposed to continue and expand this project by coming back here for the next few years.   They have worked with Crabeaters, Weddell and Ross seals and are very excited about finding a few more of the rare and almost unstudied Ross seals.  They are constantly hoping to get a chance at the large and predatory leopard seals.  The seals that they have sampled have ranged from 76-230 kilograms (about 170-500 pounds).  
The biggest surprises for the scientists have been that 50% of the crabeater seals show cuts and scars from leopard seal attacks.  A seal we worked with yesterday had 4 cuts that were only a couple of days old.  You could clearly see the parallel cuts about 3 inches apart made by the leopard’s upper canine teeth and the cuts from the leopard’s lower jaw.  These slashes looked like clean knife slices 10 inches long and 1.5 inches deep.  They went through the tough skin and exposed over an inch into the blubber.  The scientists have never seen a population of animals where so many are so badly injured by predators.   Some seals have infected wounds that the scientists feel they may not recover from.     For a more complete description of my trip with the seal team, read my response today to one of Drew’s questions.
You would love this place.
Jeff