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

There was a detached group of 14 cows and 2 pups and then harem 1d, with 29 cows
and 11 pups.
Altogether there were (in areas 1-14): 67 bulls, 721 cows, 201 pups, almost a
thousand, 989 in all.
I returned for lunch at 12.30 pm and then at 13.15 pm went over to area 6 and
killed three date-marked cows, with pups aged 3, 5 and 8 days old. On this congested
beach I found the best procedure, when the tide was low, was to alarm some of the
cows which had not yet pupped, driving them down the beach and into the water.
The bull followed and while he was trying to round them up I had time to kill and
examine the others. It was an unpleasant and difficult task on my own. Returning to
camp, I started the genny and began to examine the ‘monster’ delivered by my
visitors the previous day. I made a sketch and took photographs, but when I opened
it up found putrefaction to be very advanced, so made only a cursory examination. I
buried the head so that the birds would not take it.
I ran the genny for 3 hours and had a one way chat with Charlie at 8 o’clock.
Then I listened to Mendelsohn’s Italian Symphony and Elgar’s Wand of Youth suite
no. 2.
5 October started with an overcast morning with cloud down to about 300 ft and
very calm. There were no new harems in area 1 and the situation was quite
complicated. Bull J still had the largest number of cows, 52 with 21 pups. In the large
group of cows there was possibly a break and I attributed the next 46 cows to another
bull, lying 30 yards south; it was difficult to be sure. The bull in the next harem was
40 yards south again, with a bull in the same harem only 6 yards away from him. The
next harem bull south was 25 yards away. Very few cows were now lying on the
snow. The tendency was for them to move to the water’s edge, and the harems were
strung along the edge of the beach. Area 1 was now quite full and small harems were
forming on adjacent beaches; area 2 now had 5 groups, the two largest of 15 and 16
cows respectively. In area 4 there were also two small groups of cows, one with a
bull.
Area 6 contained 3 harems, a small one having formed west of 6a. In the
afternoon it changed hands three times, each challenging bull being slightly larger
than the preceding one! Bull A, at 6a, had 71 cows and 22 pups. He spent at least half
of the day in the water, herding cows back into the harem. In the water the cows
made little attempt to escape, but were stubborn. The bull bit their necks and tried to
turn them back; sometimes he succeeded, with perhaps 60%. Harem 6b had 15 cows
and 4 pups. Bull E was lurking at 6a.
On 6/7 there was a number of cows and one harem of 3 at the west end, with a
bull. Area 8 was little changed – the largest group of 61 cows and 35 pups had moved
eastwards several yards. Bull C had 44 cows and 14 pups and lay on the beach. He
was rounding up cows when I was there. Harem 8d was under bull P, but the bull of
harem 8e chased him, after a few blows, and also another one. These fights weren’t
sustained – a few blows were exchanged and then one backed away making
tremulous roars. The harem (8e) now in area 9, with 83 cows was the largest.
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