came out, here are some links to a video about weighing fur seal pups that
we do down here (I think all 3 links lead to the same video). There may
also be some leopard seal related videos from here around these sites as
well. I haven't seen the video, but no I am unfortunately not actually in
it (despite what my own mother thought).
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmvorNG1WIs
Blog with embedded video:
http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/12/fur-seal-pups-
ferociously-cute-worth-protecting/
National Geographic video page:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/missions/expedition-raw/151112
-sciex-exraw-seal-pups
K now that thats done... We have our first Antarctic fur seal perinatal
capture set for tomorrow morning, which will have already happened by the
time this is posted. Perinatal captures take place during the peak of
breeding when moms and pups are closely bonded on the beaches. These
captures allow us to track mom's comings and goings and correlate that to
how her individual pup is doing. We place a small transmitter on her so we
can know the exact time she leaves the beach and how long she is gone for.
Then, by comparing that time gone with how much weight the pup gains, we
can estimate essentially if it's a "good" year or a "bad" year.
Generally speaking good vs. bad years tend to relate to krill populations-
krill being small shrimp-like creatures that make up a huge amount of
biomass around the poles and are the main food source for just about
everything around here from whales to seals to birds. The year type is a
combination of krill location (how far away are they), krill abundance (how
many are there and how densely packed are they), and krill size (even if
there are lots of krill, if they are tiny it can't provide as much food…
obviously).
Unlike in California where marine mammals often suffer greatly during El
Niño years (get ready for even more sea lion strandings unfortunately), the
fur seals down here actually tend to do better in those years. Early
reports coming in are already suggesting that there are more krill in this
area than past years and that they are much bigger than usual. All that
could spell good news for the local seals.
Typically during a good year, moms may only have to leave their pups for 2
-5 days. During bad years that can be stretched to 6-9 days with some
females even leaving for close to 2 weeks! When that happens the pup is
nearly starving every time mom returns and it greatly restricts the pups
ability to really grow, especially since a huge amount of its energy
resources just go to staying warm. That being said, this does happen and
even those pups can and do make it- these animals are amazingly hardy.
In other news, I helped put up our second small wind turbine today. We are
mostly putting it up to test the system and just for fun. At the end of
last season we installed a whole new set of high power solar panels along
with a new set of lithium ion batteries the size of car batteries. We also
already had one wind turbine installed. All these features combined to
giving us an amazing amount of power. So needless to say, the second wind
turbine is maybe a little overkill, but it does help ensure we do not go
wanting for power.
For anyone wondering, we also do have a small generator we can run for
extra power. We use this to power certain appliances like a freezer (which
only actually needs to be turned on once every few days), a microwave, and
personal computer batteries. Nearly everything else is run from the battery
bank either through DC power or an inverter that converts it to 110V AC
power. While our set of electronics is maybe well reduced compared to your
house, we still get away with lights, charging computers, boot driers for
everyone, a small projector (new this year!), and the ability to grind
coffee.
Also, through the combination of a few mostly snowless days and even a
little rain, we have lost a fair amount of snow on the Cape. This is all
happening much earlier than last year, but the past three years have
actually had more snow than usual so who really knows what is going on.
There are still more icebergs than I can count parked between the shoreline
and the horizon, so that's still pretty exciting. Makes me feel like I'm
really in Antarctica!
To leave on a happy/ funny note I will just say that we are starting to get
more and more fur seal puppies and its pretty awesome. For as badass as
these little guys are- being able to survive below freezing temperatures
with windchills and snow that can drop to around -20C (-4F)- they are
basically fluff balls with noodles attached. Big, flat noodles, but noodles
nonetheless. And for their first week or two they might as well have
noodles attached because it takes a ton of effort for them to get all four
moving in the same direction, with hilarious results. Small dips in the ice
become glacial crevices that might require rope and tiny climbing harnesses
to traverse. Getting from point A to point B also requires face plants
every 2-3 steps. Its adorable, especially when they are trying to act
tough. They will growl at you or a (350+ lbs) bull then try to run away to
hide nuzzled next to mom. This would be fine if they didn't always seem to
turn to run then faceplant in the snow. It doesn't help their cause of
being taken seriously. Of course, we are still talking about basically a 12
lbs ball of fluff with big eyes and a few flat noodles attached to it
trying to be taken seriously. Not happening puppies, sorry.
Sorry for low resolution photos, but its new to even be able to send
anything out.
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