Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/28/2008 - 14:18
Forums
Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

You know how you said that a lot of seals died from that sickness from the dogs.I was wondering a very stupid question.Arctic wolves live in antartica right?And if so i was wondering if they had something to do with the sickness and helped kill them???Laughing

So is that true?????

Tue, 10/28/2008 - 17:29

Jeff Peneston

This is not a "stupid question".  Many crabeater seals in Antarctica have died from distemper that they got from domestic sled dogs.  There are wolves in the Arctic but there are no wolves in Antarctica.  Actually, there are no land-based mammals at all in Antarctica.  Only marine mammals like seals and whales.  Because there are no native wolves or dogs in Antarctica the seals had never been exposed to the diseases that dogs could carry. When humans brought sled dogs, they accidentally exposed the seals to diseases that the seals had never developed resistance to.
Keep those questions coming...
Jeff Peneston

Wed, 10/29/2008 - 14:10

Anonymous

hi mr. peneston what  kind of seals are in antarctica and is ther a lot of pegwins

Thu, 10/30/2008 - 19:12

Jeff Peneston

On the continent of Antarctica and the surrounding islands there are fur seals and elephant seals but on the sea ice where the Oden will be going we plan to see crabeater, Weddell, leopard and Ross seals.  We will also see many penguins, mostly Emperor and Adele.  There are millions of penguins and seals in Antarctica.Jeff Peneston

Thu, 11/13/2008 - 16:37

Guest

thank you for the answer