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

Then one day I skied right around Signy Island; it was fine and on the way I
drew the wreck of the ‘Tioga’. The numbers of Weddells on the West coast were
much reduced now - probably only 50% of the number that were present a
month earlier. In Fyr Channel I counted 25 cows with pups. There was a large
area of open water at the eastern end of this strait and the current was strong.
There were more Weddells along the South coast. It was a splendid day and I got
back to base by 7.30 pm. On the way I spied Derek on top of Jebsen Ridge and he
got back an hour before me; Ralph had been to Gourlay where he had a near
miss with an elephant seal.
Summer l949: Throughout the summer small numbers of Weddell seals hauled
out, usually solitary animals; also I was preoccupied with my elephant studies
which left little time for other observations, and so there is nothing special to
report about the Weddells. Towards the end of January l949 I picked up several
averted penguin skins - evidence of leopard seals - and a month later there were
several of these skins on the beach. It was odd that we had seen none lately. In
mid-March four fin whales entered the sound. We saw very few whales over our
25 months ashore, probably because they tend to feed near the shelf break and
around the South Orkneys this is far from land.
A day in early April, l949 was a red-letter day for seal observations. A young
crabeater hauled out on our beach bleeding from freshly inflicted leopard seal
scars. Then, as I came to the East side of the bay I noticed a very dark seal of
unexpected shape which, when I came up to it, proved to be a bull Antarctic fur
seal lying with hind-flippers tucked under its abdomen. His hair was dark sootybrown
with light tips, vibrissae, ears light sandy colour and flippers grey-black.
The head was very pointed and the matted fur made gave it a hedgehog-like
look! He lay near the shore on a grounded ice-floe and was not at all disturbed,
even when I walked up close to have a look. There was a musky smell. This was
very exciting as probably the first recorded sighting of a fur seal in the South
Orkneys since commercial sealing brought the species near to extinction in the
nineteenth century. (Little did I think then that in the l980’s and l990’s thousands
of fur seals would haul out at Signy during the summer and a small number of
pups would be born. This was to pose an insoluble conservation problem as the
seals’ trampling destroyed the natural vegetation over large areas of low-lying
ground).
Weddell seal breeding season, l949: The breeding haul-out of Weddells began again,
but this time we were so busy with the breeding elephants that I was able to
make only a few observations on them. On 25 August two males and one female
Weddell were seen near base and five at Gourlay. The fast-ice was receding as it
broke up and its edge was drawing nearer to us. Then another three seals hauled
out near us, one female just South of Observation Bluff, and a number at
Gourlay. Towards the end of August when I went up to the Bluff I saw the first
Weddell pup on a floe down below, so skied to it accompanied by Charlie and
John and tagged it. Then we went on to Gourlay where there were three more
pups, which I marked. A few more hauled out over the next few days and at the
beginning of September Charlie and I went round the coast to Gourlay to mark
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