Weddell seal pups spend around 6 weeks after birth with their moms nursing, gaining a lot of weight, learning to get in and out of the cold Antarctic water, learning to swim well, and learning about how best to survive to adulthood by watching their moms interact with other seals in the pupping colonies. Then at around 45 days, Weddell moms leave their pups to fend for themselves with what they've learned during the nursing period. Only some 20% of female Weddell pups will survive to adulthood to have pups of their own. Here's the latest short-short Weddell Seal Science project video by Jeremy Schmidt on "Pup Life Lessons":
It's peak Weddell seal pupping season around the pupping colonies in Erebus Bay, Antarctica right now. The Weddell seal population study field team is extremely busy finding, recording, and tagging all the new pups born in the study area. Field researchers are also busy determining how much time a selection of Weddell pups spends in the water during this first 45 days of life. The field team works throughout the pupping season to determine the mass (weight) of a select group of moms and pups with known ancestries. These pups will be weighed three times during the nursing season, once near birth, and then again at the mid-nursing period, and finally at 45 days near the very end of the nursing season right before their moms leave them to survive on their own. The scientists have learned that there is wide variation among Weddell pups in all these areas, including how old and experienced their moms are, at what point during the pupping season they are born, weight at birth, weight gained during the nursing period, and time spent in the water learning to swim well. These individual characteristics, the scientists are learning, affect the Weddell pups' chances of becoming one of those 20% of female pups to survive to adulthood and have pups of their own.
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