A new Interactive Map shows the pupping history and locations of the rare 33 year-old Weddell seal mom recently recorded by the Field Team in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. This new interactive map was created by Prof. Jay Rotella to visually indicate with accompanying data the locations and dates of this rare old Weddell mom's pup births each pupping season over her lifetime to date. Jay used the RStudio software environment for statistical computing and graphics with the Leaflet package to create this interactive map from the long-term Weddell Seal Population Study's decades-long database. The data were collected by many decades of Field Team members–lead scientists and graduate students on the Study, and numerous polar trained field research technicians. Read on for Jay's discussion of this new interactive map, and hints for displaying even more info by zooming in, below!
From Dr. Jay Rotella:
This interactive map shows annual locations for a female Weddell seal who was born in 1991 at Hutton Cliffs. The colored dots indicate her breeding state in each year: orange for when she was a pup, green for when she was a pre-breeder, light blue for when she was a first-time mom, dark blue for when she had subsequent pups (experienced mom), and yellow is for when she was in the study area but was taking a year off from producing pups.
Click on the larger blue circle to bring up a table of this Weddell mom's reproductive history throughout her life. You can also zoom in or out on the map to see various levels of detail. If you click on the home button on the left side of the map, the map will re-center on the main study area. You can also use the ruler tool to measure distances. Click on the globe icon to get an Antarctica-scale map to see where our study area sits. Finally, as you move the cursor around on the map, the latitude and longitude are shown in the upper left corner of the map.
On the map, you can zoom in to find where the pup was born (hint: zoom in on the cluster of dots on the left side of the map) and where her 1st pup and her most recent pup were born. If you hover your cursor over or tap a dot, information will appear regarding that year’s observation.
As for the rare old mom's pups, she has 1 above-average daughter who was born in 2000 as the mom’s 5th pup when the mom was 9. That daughter has gone on to have 5 pups of her own.
Click Here to view a full webpage version of this interactive map in your browser!
- Dr. Jay Rotella
Lead Scientist, Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study