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

deep dissection at the base of the skull, using a hammer and chisel. All this took time.
Then I spent time taking photographs, restarted the generator, and filled in the proforma
seal data sheets. My supper was stew and tinned peas, followed by apples.
That night there was an hour of music on the radio – Delius first.
The last day of September was fine, but very windy at first light, so I remained in
the tent until the wind moderated, leaving for the harems at 8.30 and returning for
lunch at noon. It was still a very cold and strong wind as I set out and I noted that the
seals had left the exposed beaches.
In area 6, bull A, with harem 6a now had 31 cows and 7 pups, and I date-marked
the four cows that had produced new pups. Harem 6b had 14 cows but as yet no
pups. In area 1, matters were becoming complicated and I drew a map to show the
positions and sizes of the harems; there was one new one. Bull J now had 88 cows in
his harem, split into 3 groups with another bull on periphery. The harems were still
entirely confined to the beach and had not invaded the tussack platform behind.
In area 8 I also drew a map, for here again the position was becoming very
complicated. Bull C had a very large harem of 112 cows and 23 pups, with one bull
lying on the outskirts. 8d now had 21 cows and 3 pups; 8c had 24 cows and 1 pup.
The rest were rather scattered, though each harem had peripheral bachelors.
Harem 10a had 10 cows and 2 pups. I date-marked the newly delivered cow. The
largest harem in area 12 had 54 cows and 9 pups. The bull in charge had retained
possession after a very bitter fight with another bull, which lay on the beach. Both
were covered in blood but the harem bull seemed to be most severely damaged, with
his proboscis badly torn. At the south end of this beach was bull Q, with 2 cows.
Several bulls and cows were snow-flipping that day.
Total numbers in areas 1-14 were 59 bulls, 447 cows and 13 pups (including 4
dead ones); altogether 579. I thought the falling off in numbers of bulls was due to
the wind and drift.
After lunch I did some ‘housekeeping’ jobs and then went over to beach 10 to kill
2 dated cows for reproductive material. I tried to move the bull, but couldn’t, so I
killed and examined the first cow with the bull only a few yards away. However, I
had to move the bull and another cow, before killing the second date-marked cow.
The results of my examination were interesting. Of the cows, there was no difference
in the ovaries of the first two, but one of that day’s cows (7-days post-partum)
already showed larger follicles in the active ovary (developing for the next oestrus
cycle) and the corpus luteum (CL) in the other ovary was much smaller. Later, closer
and more detailed examination would show more.
At 5.30 pm I climbed the crags just north east of camp and sat for an hour
watching the sun go down. It was a glorious evening: the wind was setting up
furious snow squalls and eddies on the plain below and I could see how relatively
sheltered my camp was, for only occasional gusts reached it. The sea was lilac green
with mauve and yellow tints in the calm patches, produced by the kelp band. The
hills to the east looked as if painted in glaring colours, purple and orange, and set up
as stage scenery.
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