Weddell Seal Science

Last Year's Oldest Weddell Mom Recorded Again This Season For New Records!

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 10^th 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

Oldest Weddell Mom Ever Recorded!

Field Report From Prof. Jay Rotella:

We have a new record for the oldest Weddell seal ever recorded. Our new record-setter is 33 years old and with her 21st pup. She broke the longest-known lifespan record by 1 year, and she’s just 1 pup short of tying the record for the most pups produced in a lifetime, which is 22. She’s also a great reminder of just how faithful many of the animals in our study population are to the Erebus Bay colonies.

This female, who’s currently wearing yellow tags numbered 8281, has been documented in the study area in 32 different years starting with 1990, the year she was born and first tagged. She has been in the study area in every pupping season from 1995 through 2023. That’s 29 years in a row and includes 1995-1997, when she was a pre-breeder, 1998 when she had her first pup, 20 other years when she had subsequent pups, and 5 years when she skipped reproducing. She is also interesting in another way.

She has produced 14 sons and 7 daughters, which is obviously not a 50:50 sex ratio for offspring that’s the population-level average. We have found that the mothers who are more productive do tend to produce a greater proportion of sons.The idea behind that being that if you are in great shape and can produce a high-quality son, he can go on to sire many pups in this species in which the top males can breed with multiple females and in which females produce at most a single pup per year except in the very rare cases when twins are produced.

A map of her annual locations shows that she has been quite faithful to the Hutton Cliffs area, which is where we tend to see most, but not all, of the supermoms and something we plan to look into further in the next few years. Many of her annual locations are so close to one another that the markers on the map tend to fall on top of one another, which is why you don’t see all 29 locations on the map at the resolution of the image provided.

- Dr. Jay Rotella

Fun New Short Video By Writer and Imager Jeremy Schmidt!

Weddell seal population project multimedia specialist Jeremy Schmidt's newest short-short video creation Cold Comfort shows us some of the challenges and joys of studying Weddell seals in Antarctica.

Jeremy is a wildlife and adventure travel writer and imager. He is the author and creator of the project's new multimedia ebook Weddell Seals, now available FREE on Apple Books, Google Play Books, and as a direct download on our WeddellSealScience.com eBook page.

He is also the co-producer of our most complete project science video to date, How Moms Matter To Weddell Seal Pups. This 14 minute short film is an Official Selection at the 2024 Wildlife Conservation Film Festival to be held in Naples, Florida this coming January.

Some of Jeremy's other fun short-short videos can be viewed in a previous field blog post, Five Short Videos By Jeremy Schmidt.

- Mary Lynn Price

Fascinating Paper Published On Weddell Seal Population Dynamics

Weddell seal population project PhD student Kaitlin Macdonald is the lead author of a fascinating recent paper published by the project in the Journal of Animal Ecology. The paper is titled, "Evaluating the importance of individual heterogeneity in reproduction to Weddell seal population dynamics using integral projection models." The entire paper is available Here.

Kaitlin and the paper's co-author Prof. Jay Rotella discuss the findings in this recent paper, and the importance of long term population studies, in our latest Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast. The podcast is available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We hope you enjoy the new audio podcast episode, presented below!

- Mary Lynn Price

Report From The Ice By Dr. Jay Rotella With New Video From Parker Levinson!

Field Video From Parker Levinson:

Field Report From Dr. Jay Rotella:

Although the field work was slow to get going this year due to weather-related delays in the team’s arrival, things are now going well. The team has put in flagged routes, which are essential to safe travel, to nearly every seal pupping colony, and hopes to complete the final few stretches today or tomorrow.

The past few days have had mostly sunny skies with relatively light winds and modest temperatures
(5-12 degrees F), which has allowed the team to do a lot of work with the seals. The peak of pup births is here, so as we get caught up over the next week or so, we’ll have much better information on how many pups will be produced by the Erebus Bay Weddell seal population this year and how it compares to the high levels that have occurred in recent years.

The sea ice extends a fair bit further north beyond the study area and the sea ice is quite thick this season. Some of the colonies that typically have a lot of mother-pup pairs appear to hold more modest numbers this year, while some of the more northerly, outlying colonies seem to have more.

We’re looking forward to learning how things turn out as one of our goals is to learn what makes the population go up and down the way it does. So, years with different conditions and different numbers are key to making progress on that question. We’re also very interested in seeing if the number of mothers that are born outside the study area is lower this year when the more extensive ice provides more alternate pupping sites for such females. More to come in the weeks ahead.

- Jay Rotella, Lead Scientist and Professor, Montana State University Ecology Department

Lead Scientist Jay Rotella Joins Field Team On The Ice

Weddell Seal Population Project lead scientist Prof. Jay Rotella is now safely in Antarctica at the US Antarctic base, McMurdo Station. He is currently completing his annual sea ice safety training to join the field team working in Erebus Bay. This is Jay's 22nd year on this project, and he has deployed to Antarctica many, many times over these past two plus decades of his work on this over 50 year population study project. We look forward to to our next update from the field as the birth of new pups, tagging, weighing, and population surveys ramp up over the peak pupping season period ahead. Here's Dr. Jay Rotella in a previous season discussing the project's work with Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica.

- Mary Lynn Price

New Podcast Episode Featuring "Weddell Seals" eBook Author Jeremy Schmidt Reading An Excerpt on Mark-Recapture

In our latest Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast, project multimedia specialist and author/creator Jeremy Schmidt reads an excerpt from our new multimedia eBook, "Weddell Seals" on Mark-Recapture basics. Mark-Recapture is a data analysis method used extensively by the project to estimate the size and abundance of the Weddell seal population in Erebus Bay, Antarctica that is the focus of the Weddell seal population project. The podcast is available through Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and the new episode on Mark-Recapture basics is presented, below. We hope you enjoy the new episode!

- Mary Lynn Price

1st Video From The Field As The 2023 Weddell Seal Pupping Season Gets Rolling!

Field Team Leader and MSU Grad Student Parker Levinson reports by video from the Big Razorback Weddell seal pupping colony in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. In addition to her Masters work on the project toward an MS in Fish and Wildlife Management, Parker is an excellent wildlife photographer. Her video outreach work this season showcases her growing skills as a video producer. We look very much forward to featuring more of her wonderful work throughout the pupping season!

- Mary Lynn Price

Flagging Safe Sea Ice Travel Routes In Erebus Bay

As the Antarctica field team gets into action this 2023 Weddell seal pupping season in Erebus Bay, flagging safe snowmobile routes over the sea ice to the many Weddell seal pupping colonies is one of the first major pupping season activities of the field team on the Ice. This work is crucial to safe travel and work on the sea ice, and takes a couple of days to complete. Here's a video from a past season showing what's involved in flagging these safe snowmobile routes.

This season, the sea ice is in pretty good shape throughout the Erebus Bay area. There are a number of large sea ice cracks that happen every year, and many smaller cracks that are new each season. The field team learns how to properly drill for these cracks both to expose them and measure the sea ice thickness for safety purposes. This drilling will continue for many cracks over the course of the changing conditions as the sea ice begins to melt in places during the Austral Spring. The Antarctica field team is well trained to safely accomplish these tasks!

- Mary Lynn Price

Report From The Ice By Parker Levinson!

Report From Parker Levinson, Field Team Leader and MSU Masters Student:

We finally made it to the Ice!! It’s been a bit of a whirlwind getting down here. We were delayed in Christchurch, New Zealand for about a week due to weather (both in Antarctica and in New Zealand) and plane logistics.

We thought we were going to fly Saturday, we even managed to board the C17 and fasten our seatbelts but had to disembark after the winds in NZ got too strong to take off. All our bags were already checked and on the plane, but we got our "boomerang" bag back as we disembarked. This is a bag that contains all your essentials and some extra clothes and is returned to you in case your flight does not land in McMurdo, i.e., boomerangs back to New Zealand. 

But we’re here now! We arrived on a gorgeous blue bird day. There was absolutely no wind, the sky was crystal clear, and you could even make out the smoke coming out of Mount Erebus - the southernmost active volcano on Earth - in the distance. On the drive into station, we spotted some seals out on the sea ice. 

I think it can sometimes be hard to visualize what it’s like to work down here. I took the first photo on the road that runs by our laboratory as the sun was “setting”. Crary is the building on the left which is where we have our lab, and you can make out Mount Discovery on the horizon line.

This second photo was taken from the same spot less than 24 hours later, and while you can still make out buildings in the second image, you can see how much the landscape changes and how quickly it can change. 

We’ve spent the last few days getting situated and preparing to head into the field. We’ve done a variety of trainings from GPS use to sea ice safety, and now we’re in the final stages of getting all our gear ready to head into the field. We’re hoping to get into the field in a few days, and see what the seals are up to this season! 

- Parker Levinson

2023 Antarctica Field Team Now Safely On The Ice!

Project lead scientist Prof. Jay Rotella reports this morning that he has heard from field team leader Parker Levinson that the field research team has safely arrived in Antarctica. "They made it to McMurdo Station. Their gear has also arrived and the items we shipped down as cargo this summer are all present and ready, which is great. I think we’ll know a lot more within 1-2 days about when they’ll be trained and cleared to go out on the sea ice."

This season the field team will be based on station at McMurdo, the largest of the three US Antarctic bases. In many past seasons the team was based at a remote sea. ice camp near Big Razorback Island, which is more central to the Weddell seal pupping colonies in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. (Please see a map above of the Weddell seal pupping colonies that are the primary focus of the Erebus Bay Weddell seal population project.)

For the past several years, due variously to the pandemic, sea ice conditions and fiscal constraints, the team has worked out of McMurdo Station. This means longer snowmobile drives to access the numerous pupping colonies and return home in the evenings, and longer work days for the field team. Yet it also means that the team will have easier access to the many support services and benefits of living on and working from the largest US Antarctic base.

We hope to learn more soon, and will update all when we do!

- Mary Lynn Price

2023 Antarctica Field Team Flies To The Ice!

While we await word from our 2023 field team that they have finally arrived safely in Antarctica at the US Antarctic Base, McMurdo Station, field team leader Parker Levinson introduces us to this pupping season's core 2023 field team members:

We'll update viewers as soon as we know everyone is safely on station in Antarctica!

- Mary Lynn Price

Report From 2023 Field Team Leader and Masters Student Parker Levinson!

Report From Parker Levinson:

Christchurch, New Zealand: People frequently ask me how I feel about returning to Antarctica for another season, and, surprisingly, my answer is “a sense of relief and excitement”. We started planning for 2023 field season months ago, in early March, and have worked steadily since then to make sure we have everything in place for a productive time on “The Ice”.  As soon as I leave the United States, I feel this incredible sense of relief; all of the hard work has paid off! True, we are not in Antarctica yet, but we’re on our way!

Watch Parker Levinson's new video about heading to
Antarctica on our Weddell Seal Science Instagram page!

Now I start getting excited. I envision first stepping off of the plane and breathing in the dry, cold Antarctic air. I think about the snowmobile drives with beautiful, snow covered mountains in the distance. I remember how exciting it is when each technician tags their first seal pup. Of course, there are always hurdles and changes, but that’s part of what makes it fun to work down there - a never-ending logistical puzzle. 

This season, we’ll be working out of McMurdo Station again, instead of from the field camp which we’ve had for more than 40 years of the project. Although working from Station increases our daily commute by a lot, it does have some perks. It provides access to showers, a frequent ability to do laundry, and an endless supply of delicious baked goods.

With some spare time, we headed over to the Antarctic Center and
snapped our first team photo. From left to right,
Rebecca, Kelsey, Parker, Abram, and Nate. 

Before the field season gets underway, I wanted to take this time for the crew to introduce themselves and share what they’ve been up to.... 

Nate Jourdannais (he/him) grew up in Missoula, Montana and has worked as a wildlife research technician all over the state of Montana, primarily with ungulates (deer, elk, pronghorn). He’s currently enjoying Christchurch, New Zealand, taking in the views and enjoying new food. He’s excited to work in Antarctica for the harsh, unique, and diverse experience it will provide, and is looking forward to pushing himself out of his comfort zone and getting the opportunity to work hard in an entirely new ecosystem and part of the world. This is Nate's first year on the project, and first time in Antarctica.

Abram Brown (he/him) graduated from Montana State University in Spring of this year. He has previously worked in various field jobs including in Yellowstone National Park. In his free time he enjoys skiing and biking with friends. He is most excited to meet some baby seals and start his winter early in Antarctica. This is Abram's's first year on the project, and first time in Antarctica.

Kelsey Cronin (she/her) is a birder, biker, baker, and biologist deeply interested in how wildlife populations respond to threats like climate change and habitat loss. Though originally from Southern Oregon, Kelsey has lived in seven states in the past six years, traveling all around the West to assist on a variety of wildlife research projects. In her spare time, she enjoys creating memes, eating pastries, and reading food magazines. This is Kelsey's first year on the project, and first time in Antarctica.

Rebecca Ballard (she/her) grew up in Maryland but has spent the past seven-ish years based out of Montana, finishing a Wildlife Biology B.S. at the University of Montana and working a variety of wildlife jobs from studies on pika to bears to wolves. In her free time back home she likes to hike, backpack, roller skate, try a lot of different craft projects without ever getting too good at any of them, and hang out with her two goofy dogs. This is Rebecca's first year on the project, and first time in Antarctica.

And lastly, me. I’m Parker Levinson (she/her) - a graduate student on this project. This will be my 5th season down in Antarctica, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the seals again. My research focuses on why there are more seal pups now than in previous decades and how that might impact the population in the future.

We’re excited to share the journey with you - ups and downs - so stay tuned. Reach out to us on Instagram if you have specific questions! 

- Parker Levinson (she/her), 2023 Field Team Leader and Montana State University Masters Student

New 2023 Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast Episode Featuring Lead Scientist, Prof. Jay Rotella!

The 2023 Antarctica field research team is en route to McMurdo Station, Antarctica to begin field research work during the Weddell seal pupping season in the Erebus Bay area of Antarctica's Ross Sea. Here is the 2023 opening episode of our Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast featuring lead scientist, Prof. Jay Rotella discussing plans, goals, and genomics for the new field research season. This podcast is available free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We hope you enjoy the podcast, presented here using the Spooler Podcast Player!

- Mary Lynn Price

 

2023 Antarctica Field Team Heads to The Ice!

Today the Weddell Seal Population Project’s 2023 Antarctica field team begins their deployment to McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Every springtime in Antarctica, our field team heads South for the annual Weddell seal pupping season in the Erebus Bay area of the Ross Sea to study these iconic Antarctic marine predators. The project has been doing this for over 50 years, resulting in a database that is unique in the scientific community.

Again this season, Montana State University Masters student Parker Levinson is the project field team leader, as she has been for the past two seasons. We’ll introduce you to the entire field team in future posts. The field team will travel to Christchurch, New Zealand where they will be further outfitted for polar work through the US Antarctic Program (New Zealand), and flown to the US Antarctica base, McMurdo Station, when the weather cooperates. 

This season, we'll keep you updated through this field blog, and our Instagram account which is produced and curated by MSU senior Sophia Rotella, daughter of Project Principal Investigator Prof. Jay Rotella. 

Please also check out our new multimedia ebook, "Weddell Seals", now available FREE on Apple Books, and as a direct download on the Weddell Seal Science eBook web page. We hope you enjoy the new eBook!

- Mary Lynn Price

New "Weddell Seals" Multimedia eBook Released By The Project!

We open our 2023 seasonal Antarctica field blog with wonderful news! Soon our 2023 Antarctica Field Team begins their deployment travel to The Ice for the Weddell seal pupping season, as scheduled. And Weddell Seal Science is excited to announce the publication of our new multimedia ebook, Weddell Seals!

Weddell Seals is now available for Free at Apple Books, and as a direct download from WeddellSealScience.com. The new ebook includes numerous cool photos, videos, graphics and audio accompanying the engagingly written chapters.

For a direct download of the new multimedia ebook, Click Here.

To download the PC-friendly epub reader, Adobe Digital Edition, Click Here.

This fascinating new ebook is filled with photos, video, maps and graphics that help bring the engaging text to life. The ebook was written and produced by Weddell Seal Population Project multimedia specialist, Jeremy Schmidt. Jeremy is an author and photographer of natural history and exploration.

 
MSU Weddell Seal Population Project Masters Student and 2023 Field Team Leader Parker Levinson
demonstrates the new eBook in the Ecology Library at Montana State University. The views and
comments in this ebook do not represent those of Montana State University, and should not
be construed as such.

Our intended audience is everyone, from young people to the young at heart of all ages, with an interest in these amazing iconic marine predators. The eBook covers Antarctica, the science work being done by our population project scientists, graduate students and field technicians, doing research in Antarctica, and what the project has learned over the 50 decades plus studying this population of  Weddell seals. We hope you enjoy our new multimedia ebook!

- Mary Lynn Price

Field Season Photo Finale!

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

Although the pupping season is done and the whole crew is back in the States trying to re-acclimatize to life without seals in their life, we each took a moment to go through our photos and select our favorite seal image from our time in Antarctica. 

From Morgan Anderson, above: "Here's a little pup looking quite ferocious for the camera. Despite any outward appearances, Weddell seals are docile, and do not view humans as a threat." 

From Avalon Conklin, above: "I took this photo on one of our last days out at Hutton Cliffs. Despite the overcast weather it was really nice out, with little to no wind. All of the seals out of the water were napping peacefully so I found myself tiptoeing through the colony trying not to wake them. I ended up laying down a ways away from this pup and his mom to take some photos. At some point he woke up and instead of turning away he decided to come towards me. He seemed fascinated by the camera and started rolling around and trying really hard to make chirping noises like an adult. After working the camera from every angle he just turned around and went back to sleep by his mom. It was honestly one of the most adorable moments I had out there and I feel extremely honored this little guy chose me for his modeling debut."

From Mairan Smith, above: "This is one of my favorite photos because it illustrates some of the cracks we had to cross daily and how remote some of the breathing holes are! A beautiful morning in Antarctica!" (The red flags were placed for team safety long before this seal moved in.)


From John Hobgood, above: "'Milky' and her mom showing off at Hutton Cliffs. This lighter pup is leucistic, a genetic mutation similar to albinism but with a bit more pigmentation. We don't typically name the seals, but given her unusual coat, it was easy to recognize her, and we couldn't help giving her a nickname."

From Brandon Davis, above: "This is a pretty cool picture of a pup molting. As the pups lose their baby fur and their adult fur grows in, they get some pretty fun hairstyles, like the pup in this photo."

From Parker Levinson, above: "There's a lot of attention on how cute and curious pups are, but I like this photo because it captures how inquisitive moms are as well. Plus, I have a hard time getting photos where both the mom and the pup are looking at the camera since typically at least one of them is snoozing." 

From Dr. Jay Rotella, above: "I chose this photo of Parker's because it nicely depicts the strong bond between Weddell seal mothers and their pups, reminds me of how much mothers invest in reproduction, and how long it takes to learn about the lives of Weddell seals. This 32-year-old mom ties the record for lifespan and sets a new record for most pups produced in a lifespan with her 23rd pup."

Thank you for following along with our fieldwork and supporting the science we do. We're so fortunate to be able to work in a place that few people get to visit, and we're glad that we get to share it with our readers. We also want to thank all the support staff at McMurdo Station that help us get our science done. We could not do our work without every single person there. Finally, a HUGE thank you to the entire field crew this year who worked extremely hard tagging pups and collecting data. Without them, none of the science is possible. 

See you all in October when we return to Antarctica! 

- Parker Levinson (she/her)

Antarctica Field Team Wrapping Up The 2022 Pupping Season

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

It’s hard to believe the end of the season is here. We’ve been working hard the past couple weeks to complete surveys, which are crucial for the resight part of the project. The tags we put on the seals are simple plastic livestock tags so the only way to know if a seal has survived from one year to the next is to physically locate that seal in our study area and record that specific tag number. We’ve already done that for females who have had pups, but we haven’t recorded all the lone adults in the study area, so surveys allow us to record all the seals present in the area and determine annual survival rates. 

Mairan Smith reading and recording tag numbers on a survey. Photo credit: Parker Levinson.

By completing numerous, systematic surveys, we’re also able to figure out how many seals are present in the study area. Although we tag every pup in the study area, some adults do not have tags. During a survey, we record how many untagged animals are around so we can better estimate the entire population size.

Lastly, surveys help us understand colony attendance patterns. On average, a Weddell female will breed 2 out of every 3 years. During the years when she is not breeding, she might come back to the study area to mate in which case we would record her during a survey, but she may also go somewhere else on her "off" years. Recording who is present in which years helps us understand what environmental variables cause a seal to show up even when she isn't having a pup. 

Our study area is about 75 square miles so it takes a fair bit of time to survey it in its entirety. We split up into groups and map out survey routes the night before to ensure we cover the entire study area. Normally, we also record mom and pup pairs; however, we have a lot of seals this year, so to increase efficiency, we’re focusing our final few surveys on lone adults that are in the area as we’ve already recorded the mother/pup pairs. With three teams of two people, we can cover the entire study area in about 9 hours. 

Surveys have been really interesting this year. We’ve had a handful of animals show up that we haven’t recorded in over a decade. For example, last survey we recorded a male wearing tags “9501A” who hasn’t been seen in our study area since he was tagged as a pup in 2009. We’ll see if he continues to show up in future seasons. 

A male Weddell seal guards a breeding hole by Tent Island. Photo Credit: Avalon Conklin.

We’ve also seen a handful of one, two and three year old seals coming back to the study area, Typically we don’t see these younger seals until much later in their life. It’s pretty exciting to see and record these individuals to mark that they survived the earlier years of their life as juvenile survival is relatively low. These seals tend to be a lot smaller as they haven’t reached full adult size yet. 

Covering so much ground in a single day allows us to see a lot. Last time we saw both an emperor penguin and an Adélie penguin, which was quite exciting! The emperor penguin was quite curious about our snowmobiles. 

An emperor penguin walked a couple hundred meters to investigate our snowmobiles after we had stopped.
Photo Credit: Parker Levinson.

We're completing our final survey in the next couple of days before our time in the field comes to a close. Then, we'll transition to cleaning and organizing our gear as we get ready to redeploy back to the United States. 

- Parker Levinson (she/her)

Follow Our Weddell Seal Science Population Project Work Online!

The Weddell Seal Population Study has long had a strong commitment to sharing science news and information on the work of the research team with public audiences of all kinds, including students, parents, teachers, young people, seniors, nature and Antarctica lovers. We do this online and through presentations in several different ways. What follows is a visual list of some of the best ways to stay up on our work online and learn more about this Weddell seal population study and the science involved.

Viewers can find links to most everything Weddell project-related, including links to all the project's published scientific papers, and all our different social media links, at our project web portal WeddellSealScience.com.

Currently, our Instagram page is Hot! Managed by Sophia Rotella, Montana State University junior and daughter of project lead scientist Dr. Jay Rotella, this platform features beautiful and fascinating Weddell seal photos and videos, with descriptions that include interesting facts and science findings on this Weddell seal population. Recently, a short video clip of an adorable babbling Weddell seal pup filmed by field team member Mairan Smith went viral, and as of this writing has over 36 Million views and rising! The Instagram page itself has nearly 100,000 Followers! Enjoy the viral Weddell pup video below.

This season, we launched a new Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast. Our current podcast episode features 2022 Antarctica Field Research Team members discussing their Takeaways from this Weddell pupping season. Past episodes cover everything from our science goals to Weddell seal vocalizations. Check it out at Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

As the Erebus Bay Weddell seal pupping season gets underway during the Antarctic Spring, and the research field team heads to Antarctica, we start up this Weddell Seal Science Antarctica field blog. We've been doing this every year since 2010, and all previous field blog posts going back to 2010 are still available. We have gathered some of our past posts together in a more accessible format in the Select Articles section on our Weddell Seal Science website.

Our Weddell Seal Science YouTube Channel includes nearly all of our Weddell Seal Project videos over the past 12 years. Please check out some of our videos and leave feedback!

 

We also have both a Weddell Seal Science Facebook Page with updates, news, and information about the Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study, and...

...a Weddell Seal Science Twitter Page.

We have an older Weddell Seal Science Video Podcast available at iTunes where you can view some of our earlier project videos.

A selection of Weddell Seal Project videos can be found on Google Earth's 'Explore the Ocean'
Layer, courtesy of Mission Blue. To access these videos embedded in situ, download Google Earth, then launch it on your computer or mobile device. Make visible the 'Explore the Ocean' Layer. Zoom in on Ross Island, Antarctica and note the small gold circles in the Erebus Bay study area. Cursor over each small gold circle to reveal the video embedded there:

The Erebus Bay Weddell Seal population study has a good selection of Weddell seal population study videos and our public outreach and education WeddellSealScience.com web portal available through the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) website. The videos are available as Open Educational Resources Commons products allowing video download and educational usage.

To readily get to our products at the NSDL, go to their easy-to-use website and type "Weddell Seal Science" in the main Search field to access, watch, and download our project videos. Viewers can check out and download videos for personal enjoyment and informal science learning and teaching. The videos can be remixed to create new educational products. 

We are always looking for new and interesting ways to get information and images out to public audiences in engaging ways. We do have something big in the works right now, and can't wait to share that in the not-too-distant future. Please stay tuned!

The Erebus Bay Weddell Seal Population Study is funded by the National Science Foundation, with support from the U.S. Antarctic Program. The Principal Investigator on the project is Dr. Jay Rotella , Professor in the Montana State University-Bozeman Ecology Department.

- Mary Lynn Price
Weddell seal population project multimedia specialist

Some Cool Weddell Pupping Season Highlights So Far

It's now past peak Weddell seal pupping time, and the field team is working hard to survey all of the seals in the Erebus Bay, Antarctica study area this season. These full surveys require that the team moves through the entire study area, visiting all of the Weddell seal colonies in around 24 hours, to log all the seals sighted. They will do this many times. This is to account for as many seals as possible since many of the seals will be swimming underwater at any one time.

Field team researcher going from seal to seal recording data on every seal encountered during a survey.
Photo by Mary Lynn Price, NMFS Permit No. 1032-1917.

The team also encounters pups born later on in the pupping season, and records them, their moms, and the locations of their births. It's a busy time for the field team!

The entire 2022 field team with the New Zealand Prime Minister (center) on the National Science Foundation's
chalet deck, McMurdo Station. Dr. Jay Rotella is 2nd from right. Photo by NSF staff. 

So far, there have been a number of field season highlights this year. A cool highlight was a recent visit by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Right Honourable Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, to whom a brief on the population project's work was presented. New Zealand's Antarctica Station Scott Base is very near the US McMurdo Station, and a couple of the Weddell seal colonies are quite close to Scott Base.

Rare old Weddell mom ties record for oldest mom at 32 yrs-old, with record-setting 23rd pup.
Photo by Parker Levinson.

Another 2022 highlight is the team encounter with a rare old Weddell mom who is 32 years old and with her 23rd pup. This mom ties the record for oldest Weddell seal ever documented, and sets a new record for most pups born over a lifetime to a single Weddell seal mom.

Rare 4 yr-old Weddell mom with 1st pup. Photo by Mairan Smith.

On the opposite end of the age spectrum, this season the team also encountered a 4 year-old Weddell mom with her 1st pup. It is very rare for a Weddell seal to give birth at that young age. There have been only two other 4 year-old Weddell moms recorded in the multi-decade Weddell population study. Weddells usually begin having pups when they are around 7 or 8 years old.

This season the field team encountered a very light-colored Weddell pup, which is very unusual. "It's the only one colored like this that I've seen here," notes project lead scientist, Dr. Jay Rotella. Photo above by field team member Brandon Davis.

This very cool aerial video by Dr. Jay Rotella shows the Weddell pupping colony at Turtle Rock in the Erebus Bay study area, and gives a sense of just how vast the area is, with seals beginning to gather around this small island and active volcano Mt. Erebus in the background.

A video by field team member Mairan Smith of an adorable talkative little Weddell pup has gone totally viral on Instagram with over 22 million views and rising! Check out our amazing Instagram page managed by Sophia Rotella, Montana State University student and daughter of project lead scientist Dr. Jay Rotella. Most photos and videos are accompanied by interesting educational info on the seals and the science work.

And finally, this season we launched the Weddell Seal Science Audio Podcast. Much of our multimedia outreach over the past 12 years has been primarily focused on written material, images, and award-winning short videos, so it's been fun to work in more of a radio environment, telling short science stories with interviews and natural sounds. In all, this has been one amazing Weddell seal pupping season so far!

- Mary Lynn Price