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

probably about two weeks old and still in the natal coat. They both tried the
other side of the hole - which was oval in shape - but again failed. Mother and
pup were making a lot of noise, the pup’s efforts were getting weaker and
weaker and one could see its muscles trembling with fatigue. Mother came out
and returned to the water several times, looking around with her neck raised as
if seeking another hole.
When in the water she sometimes supported the pup on her back - possibly
unintentionally. Sometimes she came out and nosed around in the snow in the
usual way. She got agitated and mooed with head in the air and neck
outstretched, and then rolled on her back and rubbed her head in the snow. She
slipped into the hole again on top of the pup. It was still trying to get out, but its
cries were becoming more and more plaintive. The ice was about three feet thick
and though the pup could get its head and fore-flippers onto the flat surface of
the ice, in this position its hind-flippers were ineffective. It dug in its teeth but
was not strong enough to pull itself out and so slid back into the water. The
mother wouldn’t let us approach but eventually we crept up and pulled the pup
out. Mother followed and both began to nuzzle and to roll in the snow. Was this
to dry the coat? It had that effect. She nosed snow and turned on her side for the
pup to feed, but it wasn’t interested - tired perhaps by its exertions.
There was another female and pup pair further into the cove. The mother was
moving on her left side and dragged the hind part of her body - not using pelvic
thrust. Her abdomen was swollen as if she was pregnant - but it was due to
excessively swollen mammary glands.
In Stygian Cove there were sixteen Weddells and fourteen pups and I sexed
some of the pups with difficulty. There was another fourteen with pups and two
without in the vicinity of North Point. Giant petrels and eight sheathbills were
standing amongst the seals. On 24 September Derek and I went up to the top for
an ice Ob and seal count. We saw sixty Weddells in the vicinity of Cape Hansen
and Lynch Island, ten at Shag Rocks, and five dispersed over the sea ice; most
had pups in attendance. On the way down we approached the Weddell and pup
in Gash Cove. I tried tagging the pup but the knife I had with me was unsuitable
and I didn’t want to cause it unnecessary pain; the pup seemed more alarmed
than hurt, but I would use a scalpel in future.
Two days later it was fine and we decided to go over to Coronation Island to
collect the depoted equipment and supplies (from our recent journey, described
in chapter 9) and examine the vicinity of Cape Hansen and Marshall Bay. We
passed many recent tracks of seals with a lot of blood around and later we came
across several males near haul-out holes invariably bleeding from many recent
scars - so the ‘rutting’ season was evidently in full swing. The main regions of
scarring were according to number of wounds: fore-flipper; ventral surface -
especially around the genital aperture; and neck. In one of them the fore-flipper
was bleeding profusely from a raw area covering about 10 x 6 inches. These
males were all lying motionless, appeared exhausted and paid little attention to
our presence. The Weddells in the area between Cape Hansen and Lynch Island
numbered forty of which 33 were females with well-advanced pups and the rest
276