Learning a New Language: Weddell Seal Lingo!
Our research team has their own lingo! Out on the ice, the scientists use a lot of words and terms that I never use back home! I’m getting used to it now, but for those of you who didn’t follow my last Antarctic adventure, here’s a little help!
Haul out: to rest on the ice. Weddell seals spend much of the Antarctic summer hauled out on the ice, which means they are resting on the ice, instead of foraging (hunting for food) in the water. Weddell seal moms haul out to take care of their pups.
Check out this Weddell seal hauled out and posed for the picture! Photo credit: Alex Eilers)
Fast ice: sea ice that is attached to the shore. Weddell seals love to haul out on fast ice because they can easily get into the ocean through holes and cracks in the ice.
Skipped breeders: female seals that skip a breeding year/cycle. Sometimes female Weddell seals skip a breeding cycle - in other words, they do not have a pup in a given year. We still aren’t sure why some seals do this, but we call these females skipped breeders.
Molting: shedding fur. Weddell seals molt every year, which just means they shed their fur and grow a new coat. They usually molt in January and February.
Pupping: giving birth to a seal pup.
What an amazing picture of this mom and pup! Photo courtesy of Dr. Jennifer Burns lab.
Tidal crack: a broken area of sea ice caused by the movement of the tides. Weddell seals love to hang out near tidal cracks because they offer great places to catch a breath.
Breathing holes: holes in the ice that Weddell seals use to breathe. Oftentimes, during mating season, male Weddell seals will aggressively defend these holes. The males then get the opportunity to mate with females seals that use their breathing holes.
Take a peek at this Weddell seal at its breathing hole. Photo credit: Alex Eilers.
Reaming the ice: scraping away ice to maintain their breathing holes, Weddell seals will scrape away at the ice with their teeth. This can eventually wear their teeth down.
Forage: to search for and collect food. Weddell seals do all of their foraging in the water, and can hold their breath for over 90 min.
This is an awesome photo of a Weddell seals with a fish in its mouth. Photo credit: Kim Goetz)
Fasting: going without food. Oftentimes, female Weddell seals will go without food for weeks while they are nursing their pups.
Blubber: a thick layer of fat. Weddell seals have a lot of blubber, and they use it for insulation.
This seal sure looks proud of his blubber. Photo credit: Alex Eilers.
Pinniped: a carnivorous aquatic mammal, such as a seal, walrus or sea lion. The word pinniped means ‘fin’ or ‘feather’-footed. Weddell seals are classified as pinnipeds.
A group of Walrus cows and yearlings trying to stay warm. Photo Credit: USFWS/Joel Garlich-Miller via Flickr.com
Ice sheet: a huge mass of ice that covers the ground. Most of Antarctica is covered by a huge ice sheet.
Ice shelf: large floating sheets of ice that are attached to an ice sheet.
The Ross ice shelf borders the fast ice of the Bay of Whales. Photo credit: PolarTREC educator Anne Marie Wotkyns.
Keep these definitions handy as we take this adventure together!