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

the young Weddell pups. We put flipper tags on two and then on a third; the
latter’s mother was worrying the pup slightly when we arrived and
aggressively came towards Charlie. I tagged the pup, noting that it was in a dirty
condition, thin and listless, having evidently been neglected by its mother.
When finished I walked away with Charlie and the female went for the pup and
began to ‘savage’ it, biting it in the head and flanks and shaking it as a dog
shakes a rat. We drove the mother off and dragged the pup away. This was
difficult, as she seemed to have gone crazy and was trying to get at the pup,
which was in a dazed condition and emitted piteous baa’s. It was very badly
hurt and sadly I had to dispatch it with a ski. We left it on the ice and
immediately the mother came up and savaged its lifeless body, flinging it about
in a fury. Then she rested her head on the body and periodically bit at it or shook
it violently, before moving back to her former position. It was an unpleasant
episode and we felt very upset that our disturbance in tagging it may have been
contributory. However the pup would have starved in any case, and the mother
had been worrying it before we arrived. Perhaps the birth had been a painful one
and the mother associated the pup with this pain. The ‘Scotia’ naturalists had
made a record of similar behaviour at the turn of the century. The wind began to
make itself felt and we turned back in a storm of drift snow.
I had a radio chat with Ralph on 3 September: The crabeaters were in Admiralty
Bay in large pods. Next day Charlie went over to the West coast and examined
the seals for me; they were beginning to haul out in some numbers now. For the
next few days none were visible due to the weather.
Then five days later Charlie and I went over to the Northwest coast to mark
pups, while John took Derek round to Gourlay and made a count for me. We
crossed over by the Stygian Col and had a good run down. After counting the
seals near the penguin and giant petrel rookeries we went on to Jebsen Rocks
counting seals on the way. I came upon one newly-born pup - the gulls were just
gathering and had not yet snatched away the afterbirth. Another was even
younger and the afterbirth had not yet been shed - we usually arrived just after
the event, never in advance! We marked five pups - unfortunately some were too
large for me to mark single-handed and I received several bites. Three is the
optimum number of people for marking - one to occupy the mother and the
other two to deal with the pup. We counted the seals and then returned by the
same route, reaching base at 5.0 o’clock.
Near base several Weddells gave birth in the next few days. There were four
at Outer Islet - two with pups - and an old bull. Two lay out by Outer Islet,
others were scattered about on the ice - away from bergs. By mid-month six had
hauled-out at the berg by Outer Islet and nine others further out.
In the middle of September I also had another chat with Ralph on the radio about
seals. He said there were six hundred crabeaters at Admiralty Bay and only
about thirty Weddells. A few days later he sent message to say that two bull
elephants were seen at Penguin Island on 15 September. On 1 October I had
another chat with him. The crabeaters were still at Admiralty Bay, so perhaps
some would yet pup.
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