Special Field Report From Dr. Jay Rotella:
Yesterday, the team found 0550C, who during the 2022 field season tied the previous lifespan record at 32 years of age. With her new sighting in 2023, she ties the record for lifespan at 33 years old and sets a new record for the number of pups produced in a lifetime at 24 pups (14 daughters and 10 sons). So far, she has 2 daughters that have survived and gone on to produce pups.
Photo by Parker Levinson of Rare Old Mom 0550C this season with her 24th Pup.
One of those daughters is now 24 years old and with her 10th pup this year. Both the mother (0550C) and her 24-year-old daughter are at Hutton Cliffs this year and about 3 km from one another. The 24-year-old daughter has had 2 daughters and 1 of those has already had 2 female pups. So, 0550C has daughters and granddaughters.
Rare Old Mom 0550C as photographed by Parker Levinson last season with her 23rd Pup.
Two of her sons have been seen again in the study area; one of them, who was born in 2001 and is now 21 years old, was first seen again in 2010 as a 9-year-old and in 9 of the past 12 years: it’s possible that he is contributing to 0550C’s lineage.
Project video by Jeremy Schmidt and Jay Rotella showing the pupping history of a different Rare Old Mom.
Many of 0550C’s more recently produced offspring are too young for us to know how they will fare. However, given that less than 2% of mothers typically produce more than 7 pups in a lifetime, 0550C is at the high end of the productivity that’s possible in the species, which requires a long lifetime to achieve given that the females of the species can only produce 1 pup per year at most, except in the very rare case of twins. She is also a great reminder of just how long it takes to reveal information on lifespan, lifetime reproductive output, and family trees in a long-lived species.
- Dr. Jay Rotella, Weddell population project lead scientist
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