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

1 October was a fine morning with little wind. In area 1 matters were still
complicated. It appeared that there were three groups in harem 1a: one with bull J, of
56 cows and 18 pups; another under an unmarked bull, of 17 cows and 6 pups; and a
third, also with an unmarked bull, of 32 cows and 9 pups. 1d had 18 cows and 3 pups
and was rather open; 1e was now reduced to only one cow; Harem 1f had 11 cows
and 1 pup and there was a group of cows, with no bull, near 1e – possibly part of it. I
drew another map. A cow had pupped recently in area 2; she was with 3 other cows,
but no bull. In area 3 there were no seals and in area 4 they were scattered.
Harem 6a now numbered 37 cows and 11 pups; 6b had 11 cows and no pups. I
noticed that one cow that had recently pupped was snow flipping – none of the
others were doing so at the time. In area 8 I had to draw a map to show the
dispositions. Bull C had probably 85 cows and 20 (or more) pups. Many pups were
trapped in deep holes melted in the snow and weren’t visible, so in making the
counts I had to allow for this. Even so there were probably more pups in this area
than I recorded – perhaps eight (+20%). One bull had 41 cows, but it was difficult to
say whether, or not, C controlled them whenever he wished. This area included most
of the cows that formed his original harem (paint-marked). All the other bulls at the
fringes of the harem fled whenever Red face roared. There was a continual noise of
yapping pups and grunting cows.
Another small harem (8e) had formed in the north-eastern corner - of 1 bull and
8 cows. 8d had 26 cows and 4 pups, 1 male and 1 female included. In area 9 there
were six cows which were heading towards harem 8d.
In area 10 harem 10a had dissolved; there were many birds at the carcasses of the
cows I had killed for research material, and a new large-medium bull. In area 11 were
a bull and 2 cows, the bull roaring. At the north end of 12, 12c was composed of 16
cows. 12a and b under bull F, which had been there for some days now, had 48 cows
and 9 pups and the bull was lying on the beach near the water, probably having
chased off an intruder. When my presence disturbed the harem he went to round up
some outlying cows. In yesterday’s fight he had a large chunk torn out of his
proboscis and I found it today - measuring 6 x4 inches.
A pattern was beginning to emerge in the social organisation of the breeding
areas. From my observations it was obvious that the cows are gregarious until they
give birth. After pupping they don’t tolerate other cows near and the harem tends to
expand, and take up more room. This makes it impossible for one bull to control the
huge harem and so others step in. The commercially driven sealers naturally select
the largest bulls they can find, so that only the smaller ones are left. The latter are
unable to hold large harems and the result is a greater number of smaller harems.
(Whether one bull, however large, can successfully impregnate over 80 cows, is
another matter, but if the northern fur seal can, there is no reason to suppose the
elephant seal is not equally potent). Cows newly hauling out to join an expanding
harem, find that the suckling cows already there are aggressive. Their nature being
gregarious before pupping, they tend to form separate aggregates (eg 8a, 8d, 1d, 1f,
12c etc.) which become the nucleus of new harems thus further increasing the
number of harems. Did this explain the apparent lack of interest in cows, displayed
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