Following weeks of Covid-19 quarantines put in place by the U.S. Antarctic Program to keep Antarctica Covid-free, the 2020 Antarctica field team is now on the Ice at McMurdo Station! The three-person team arrived on a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport jet.
This unusual year the three-person team will be based at McMurdo Station, and will work in the Erebus Bay study area as weather permits to assess and record all the new pups born in the study area this season. This work will maintain the 51 year continuity of this Weddell Seal Population and Mass Dynamics Ecology Study, which is unique in the scientific community.
The Study Team in Antarctica this year consists of the following members:
Kaitlin Macdonald, Weddell seal research field team crew leader
Kaitlin Macdonald is a current MSU Ph.D. student being advised by Co-Principal Investigators and Montana State University-Bozeman Professors, Drs. Jay Rotella and Robert Garrott. Kaitlin is crew leader for the field crew. She has worked on Montana State University research projects since 2012 and joined the Weddell seal project in 2014. She is now in her 6th year on the Weddell seal project. Kaitlin has also done field work with mountain ungulates and small mammals. She received her M.S. in Fish and Wildlife Management in 2018.
Parker Levinson, Weddell seal research field team
Parker received her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 2018, and has worked a variety of seasonal wildlife jobs from studying leatherback sea turtles in the tropics to Adélie penguins in the Antarctic. Originally from Monterey Peninsula, California, Parker enjoys hiking, photography, and reading in her spare time.
Will McDonald, Weddell seal research field team
Will graduated from Montana State University with a bachelor’s degree in Organismal Biology. He has worked on numerous wildlife research projects, involving a diverse group of species including birds, mesocarnivores, ungulates, and large carnivores. Most recently, Will has been working on a bighorn sheep nutritional ecology project and serving as a statistical analyst/programmer for an environmental consulting firm back home in Wyoming. In his free time, Will enjoys biking, ceramics, and cooking a good meal.
This season, the sea ice edge (where the ice ends and the sea begins) is quite close to the Weddell seal study area. Here is a photo of the sea ice edge behind Tent and Inaccessible Islands:
Please check back soon for updates on the team's work with the Weddell seals of Erebus Bay in the Ross Sea of Antarctica! Learn more about the study, the project, and the Weddell seals at WeddellSealScience.com.
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