Weddell Seal Science

Weddell Pupping Season In Full Force!

Field Report From Parker Levinson, MSU MS Student and 2022 Field Crew Leader:

Pupping is in full force! Even though Weddell pupping doesn’t peak until October 29 or 30th, we are still getting lots of new pups every day, which has allowed everyone ample time to get trained up on tagging and data entry.

A pup shows off his new tags at Hutton Cliffs while the B-009 crew takes a snack break
by their snowmobiles. Photo credit: Avalon Conklin, Field Crew Member.

We’ve been trying to make it out to the major colonies every two days to capture birth dates for the pups. By tagging every new pup in the colony, we can be sure when we return to the colony two days later that any untagged pup was born in the past 48 hours. Birthdates have previously been related to certain maternal characteristics, such as age and reproductive experience. For example, a reproductively experienced mom who did not breed last year is more likely to give birth earlier in the season (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.1985). 

An inquisitive new pup behind Big Razorback Island. Photo credit: Parker Levinson.

A new focus of this study is to learn who is immigrating into the population and how those immigrants are contributing to the Erebus Bay population. Because we tag all the pups in the study area every year and seals infrequently lose their tags, we can be quite confident that any adult seal without tags was not born in this study area. Continuing to collect birth dates, especially on pups born to immigrant moms, may shed insight on who is immigrating into the population based on when they are giving birth. Are they high-quality mothers who are giving birth earlier in the season? Or are they lower-quality individuals giving birth later in the season? In addition to collecting birth dates for immigrant mothers, we’re hoping to learn where those immigrant seals are coming from using genomics. We’re collaborating with geneticists Dr. Nancy Chen at the University of Rochester and Dr. Elizabeth Flesch at MSU to analyze tissue samples taken from immigrant mothers to genetically compare them to local-born mothers and seals in other neighboring colonies. 

A female crabeater seal snoozes on the sea ice. Photo credit: Avalon Conklin.

Aside from tagging all the pups we came across, we also saw a crabeater seal this past week! Crabeater seals tend to live and breed in the pack ice (chunks of floating sea ice in the ocean) surrounding Antarctica so we don’t see them too often here on the land-fast sea ice in Erebus Bay. However, they are the most abundant pinniped species in Antarctica with population estimates ranging from 7 million to 75 million.

A crabeater seal's serrated teeth. Photo credit: Te Papa Tongarewa from Science Learning Hub.
(https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/images/3885-crabeater-seal-teeth)

Despite what their name implies, crabeater seals exclusively eat Antarctic krill and their teeth are serrated to filter out krill from the water. They’re a bit smaller than Weddell seals and have lighter coats. With such limited terrestrial wildlife around here, it’s always fun to see something new and different! 

This week is the busiest part of the pupping season as births peak strongly around October 30th each year, and we’ll have our hands full tagging every pup in the study area. 

- Parker Levinson (she/her)

Update From The Ice!

From Parker Levinson, MS Student and 2022 Field Crew Leader:

The start of the season always flies by, perhaps because the transition to working in the dry and cold Antarctic climate can be a bit tiring. Despite this being my fourth season on the Ice, I forget how draining it is to simply adjust to life down here. Additionally, there are a lot of logistics that need to happen before we can start working in the field, which results in running lots of "errands" around McMurdo Station from swapping out a snowmobile helmet for the appropriate size to grabbing all of our equipment for the field. 

John Hobgood snowmobiling with Mt. Erebus in the background on a very clear day.
Photo Credit: Parker Levinson

In a typical year, we would be living in a field camp out by Big Razorback, a seal colony located in the center of our study area about an hour snowmobile drive from McMurdo Station, so a lot of the first week on Station would be spent getting our camp outfitted and ready to be lived in. However, this year, the sea ice formed later than normal - around late August - so the ice hasn’t had time to get thick enough to support the heavy machinery required to drag out our living structures. Because of this, we will be based out of McMurdo Station for all of 2022. Although we were all looking forward to living and working in the field, we understand why we can't have a field camp this year and are excited to take advantage of the readily available showers and delicious baked goods that living in town (aka McMurdo Station) provide. 

We finished our final training on Thursday - learning about how to maintain and uphold the Antarctic Treaty through environmental regulations - and were able to get out on the sea ice Friday. We each spent some time experimenting with different head layering systems to stay warm under our snowmobile helmets, and eventually, all figured out a good system. 

Once we were layered up, we headed out to Turtle Rock where we found 5 pups! Turtle Rock is home to many of our local born mothers, and Friday was no exception. One mother was actually born at Turtle Rock back in 1998, making her 24 years old, and this was her 10th pup. It was quite nice to get out and see some seals; I had forgotten how cute the young pups are! Plus, the weather has been absolutely superb - sunny with very limited wind! 

Big Razorback colony with a couple mom/pup pairs seen to the left of the island, Little Razorback colony
in the back, and Mt. Erebus looming large behind the islands. Photo Credit: Parker Levinson

This week, we also took a helicopter flight over the study area, looking for hazardous areas and seals hauled out in unusual places. It was really useful to see the area from above, and we'll continue to reference the photos we took as we plan out our season. 

A newborn pup shows off its flippers before researchers tag it.
Photo Credit: Morgan Anderson, Under NMFS Permit No. 26375.

Now, as pupping steadily increases, we’re focused on getting trained up with seal handling and data entry. 

- Parker Levinson (she/her)

Lead Scientist Discusses Goals of the Project In Our New Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast!

We have two cool announcements this post! First, the Population Project's Lead Scientist Dr. Jay Rotella goes into more detail discussing the 2022 goals on the new grant for our project in a new podcast. Second, that podcast is the first episode of our own new Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast! 


The new podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and numerous other podcast aggregators.

Listen and subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcasts.

Listen and subscribe to the podcast via Spotify.

The direct RSS feed link is: 
https://feeds.spooler.fm/feeds/weddell-intro.rss

We hope you enjoy the new Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast! We plan to release new episodes near weekly from the Antarctica study area during the Weddell pupping season in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. Please subscribe to the new audio podcast via the podcast provider of your choice!

- Mary Lynn Price

From Our Crew Now On The Ice!

Field Report From Crew Leader and MS Student Parker Levinson:

The B-009 field team has made it to McMurdo! It’s always a little tricky getting down to Antarctica, and this year was no exception. Some members of the team were routed through Sydney, Australia on the way down to New Zealand, resulting in some very long travel days. They were able to explore the Sydney Harbor (while following COVID-19 protocols) during their long 10-hour layover.

We finally all made it to Christchurch, New Zealand and met Tuesday morning on our way to the clothing distribution center where we received our extreme cold weather gear. Up until that point, most of our interactions have been through email or Zoom, so it was really great to meet everyone in person and start gearing up for the season. 

B-009 crew at the Christchurch Clothing Distribution Center awaiting their “Ice Flight".
From left to right: Mairan Smith, Parker Levinson, John Hobgood, Brandon Davis,
Morgan Anderson, and Avalon Conklin. Photo Credit: Fellow USAP participant. 

Wednesday was our scheduled “Ice Flight”. After a very early morning, we checked-in all our luggage and boarded the C-17 (US Air Force transport plane) to fly to Antarctica. 

Some of the crew (from left to right: Mairan, Avalon, Parker, and John) on the C-17 awaiting takeoff.
Photo Credit: Brandon Davis.

However, due to very minor mechanical issues, they decided to delay the flight a little over 24 hours so we all unloaded and went back to the hotel. We were able to catch up on sleep before exploring Christchurch. Luckily, we had a very seamless flight day on Thursday and made it to McMurdo Station by the evening! 

Crew members (from left to right: John, Morgan, Mairan, Avalon, and Brandon) pose in their Big Reds
having just landed in Antarctica with the C-17 in the back. Photo Credit: Parker Levinson.

Now that we’re all on the Ice, let’s introduce the crew!

Avalon (she/her) graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz in June 2022 with a degree in marine biology. She has spent the last year assisting in research projects on elephant seals and California sea lions at Año Nuevo Reserve and is excited to apply her experience a little further South. When she isn't outdoors, she enjoys writing and painting. 

Brandon (he/him) graduated with his Masters in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana in 2019. He has a wide variety of field experience from studying weasel moult patterns to looking at how lynx use certain resources. This is his second season working with B-009, and he’s excited to be back on the ice!  

John (he/him) graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Montana State University. Prior to completing his degree, John served 6 years in the United States Air Force as an Aerospace Propulsion Engineer. He recently worked as a research technician studying how anthropogenic barriers affect macroinvertebrate communities in freshwater systems. In his free time, John enjoys playing with his dogs, hiking, looking at trees, sarcasm, and well-made breakfast burritos.

Mairan (she/her) graduated with a degree in Biology from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington where she studied the diet of urban raccoons and opossums. She has since worked on a range of field projects including trapping bobcats and setting up trail cameras this past year with  the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. On the weekends Mairan enjoys playing cribbage, finding the best bagels around, jumping in cold water and reading! 

Morgan (she/her) graduated from Montana State University in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in fish and wildlife management and ecology. She has worked on projects studying American pika, anadromous fish, and White-tailed Ptarmigan. In her free time, she enjoys biking, hiking, skiing, and running sled dogs. 

Parker (she/her) is a current masters student on the project studying the factors that influence how many pups are born each year. She's worked on a variety of population monitoring projects from leatherback sea turtles to Adélie penguins. This is her fourth season in Antarctica, and she's looking forward to another great year! In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, playing volleyball, and doing jigsaw puzzles.

Enjoying a sunset in McMurdo before the 24-hour daylight begins. Photo Credit: Andrew Thurber.

The next week is full of trainings and gear prep as we get ready for another pupping season. After all the travel, it’s nice to get back into a work routine and settle into this unique continent! 

- Parker Levinson

Project Lead Scientist Featured In National Science Foundation's Discovery Files Podcast!

The 2022 Antarctica field team members are now in Christchurch, New Zealand awaiting covid test results and then a flight to McMurdo Station. We'll post photos and further info after their arrival on the Ice.

In the meantime, the US National Science Foundation recently launched a great new audio podcast called The Discovery Files! The current episode is "Antarctica's Weddell Seal", and features interviews with Weddell seal physiologists Drs. Jennifer Burns and Michelle Shero, and population ecologist Dr. Jay Rotella, lead scientist on our Weddell seal population and mass dynamics project. The episode can be enjoyed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Amazon, among many other podcast providers. The episode begins with interviews of physiologists Jennifer Burns and Michelle Shero about their work with Weddell seals, and finishes with Jay Rotella's interview about this Weddell seal project. Enjoy the new NSF's Discovery Files episode!

- Mary Lynn Price

Our 2022 Antarctica Field Season Begins As New Team Heads To The Ice!

Every Austral Spring, Weddell seals return to pupping colonies in the Erebus Bay area of Antarctica's Ross Sea to give birth, raise their new pups, and mate. Weddell seals are the southernmost breeding mammal on Earth. And every Austral Spring, researchers who study this Weddell seal population return to Erebus Bay to continue work on one of the longest running population studies of a long-lived mammal. Over the many decades the project developed and maintains a population database that is unique in the scientific community. (More info on the history of this research project can be found on our website, WeddellSealScience.com, in the History section.)

This 32-year-old Weddell mom with her 19th pup last season is the oldest Weddell seal ever recorded by the Weddell seal population project.

Today the 2022 Weddell seal field team began their deployment journey South to The Ice. They travel to Antarctica with the US Antarctic Program as part of the science group B-009. This group was one of the first science groups of the US Antarctic Program, and was the recipient of the first Marine Mammal Permit to be issued. The team members start their journey from the West Coast of the US and fly to Christchurch, New Zealand. There they receive training and are outfitted with extreme cold weather gear. Then, when the weather permits, the team flies to McMurdo Station, the largest US base in Antarctica. Once on station at McMurdo, the team receives further training in preparation for work on the sea ice. B-009 is one of what are known as "sea ice groups," groups that do science out on the sea ice. The Weddell seal population project is funded by the National Science Foundation, and is based currently at Montana State University - Bozeman.

This year the Weddell Seal Population Study field team consists of

1. Parker Levinson, MSU graduate student, and field crew leader for the 2nd time in 3rd field season in a row on the project;
2. Morgan Anderson, new to the project;
3. Avalon Conklin, new to the project;
4. Brandon Davis, 2nd season on the project;
5. Johnathon Hobgood, new to the project; and
6. Mairan Smith, new to the project.

Lead scientist Dr. Jay Rotella joins the field team this season in another week. He will be working in the field, and will also be working on project outreach. In upcoming blog posts we'll introduce each of the team members, explore the science work of the team and the project, and delve further into some of our cool new public outreach efforts this season.

Here's a short project video from previous seasons on some of what's involved in deploying to Antarctica. We hope you enjoy the video, and check back frequently for updates as the 2022 Weddell pupping season progresses!

- Mary Lynn Price