Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

cleaned the skin; lighting a fire and feeding it with blubber. It was a bitterly
cold occupation, and as the blubber heated it was rendered into oil, which
collected in a blazing pool. This drained through the snow and we had visions of
an oil gusher breaking out to the consternation of some sheathbills below feeding
on blubber scraps that we had thrown to them. I chewed a chunk of crispy
toasted blubber and found it most unpleasant - like cod-liver oil - but edible.
A Weddell seal hauled out near Billie Rocks on 22 July. It was lying beside the
tide crack of a small floe that had been grounded there for some time. Ralph and
I went over to look, and came upon it from behind the floe. It was a male, and
didn’t notice us until we had called several times, then woke up, blinked a few
times in surprise and rolled over coyly. We tried to make him move over the ice
towards base, but he was very persistent in circling round so as to get back to the
tide crack. I photographed the tracks and then we left him. I had now had the
opportunity to study the locomotion and tracks of elephant, crabeater and
Weddell seals:
The elephant moves by pelvic thrust and partly by pulling on the flippers. The
weight on the fore-part of the body is taken on the fore-flippers and the body
arched upwards to bring the hind part forwards. It then thrusts on the pelvic
region and straightens its body out with fore-flippers spread, and then repeats
the movement. This sequence happens very rapidly and the animal gets into a
regular thumping rhythm for a few yards at a time, reminiscent of a bouncing
car tyre, until it halts by falling forwards onto its chest.
In comparison the Weddell’s fore-flippers are much reduced and are only used
spread-out if it has difficulty getting out of a blowhole onto the ice. Their normal
movement is similar to that of the elephant, but they lift their body by pressure
of the fore-edge of the fore-flippers which is aligned with the length of the body.
The head usually slides along the ice surface, instead of raised as in the elephant.
When it wants to turn the elephant will arch its tail and head upwards, pivoting
on the abdomen and spinning itself around with a fore-flipper. The Weddell is
unable to do this because of the small size of its fore-flippers and instead rolls
over and over very sinuously, centering on its tail, until facing in the required
direction.
The crabeater is much more agile on land or ice than either the elephant or
Weddell. It moves in three ways: like the elephant or Weddell, and by a lateral
undulation of the body and alternate thrusts of the fore-flippers - a swimming
motion. In turning it can either roll like the Weddell or pivot like the elephant
seal. The young Weddell pup uses its fore-flippers spread out and then - about
when the first moult ends - it adopts the adult type of locomotion, as it fills out
and becomes more rotund.
In the water the Weddell in swimming ability seems superior to the crabeater,
which is better than the elephant. On all counts the crabeater appears to be
intermediate between the Weddell and elephant.
At the end of July and into August there were only a few Weddell seals to be
seen from day to day, or none, but one day in Normanna Strait there were a
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