Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 12/20/2008 - 19:20
Forums
Oden Antarctic Expedition 08

Hi Jeff,

Looks like you're having a wonderful time!

About ticks. Ticks around here live on animals, hang out on bushes, and wait for the next host, hopefully not me.

Ticks on seals, how does this parasite survive...does it always stay on the host? Does it drop off into the snow to wait for the next host? Why doesn't it drown when the seal stays in the water?  Why doesn't the tick freeze in such cold temperatures? Does a tick from there carry disease like Lyme disease and are the seals immune to any of the diseases the tick may carry?

Just a few questions!

Stay warm!

Stacey 

PS: Liana says "Hi" 

Sun, 12/21/2008 - 12:47

Jeff Peneston

Stacey,
These are the exact questions I asked the seal researchers when I learned that the seals in Antarctica have lice.  Yes, they are insects and they only live on seals.  There are a few species in the Arctic and a few related species in the Antarctic.  They keep from freezing by hiding in the fur and in the folds of skin on the seal’s tail flippers.  The lice have tiny hairs of their own that trap a little bubble of air so that they can live on the outside of the seal when the seal dives into the sea.  It you take the lice off of the seal and place it in the cold snow or water, it just stops moving and probably that would be the end of the lice.  Perhaps, like ticks in the grass, they are hoping that another seal will come by.   Since it is a big ocean, it is more likely that the lice transfer from one seal to the other when they lie together on the sea ice.  The scientists suspect that the Antarctic seal lice can transmit diseases, but science knows so little about them that it is one of the reasons they are collecting the lice on this expedition.
I hope everyone in your family has a great holiday.  Remember to keep reading my journals over the break.  There are new videos coming!
Take care, and have fun,
Jeff