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

There were two harems in area 11, one on the beach, of 8 cows with the bull in
the water, rounding up other cows. Harem 11a was in the tussac behind the beach,
near one of the ponds. It contained 7 cows and 2 pups.
Area 12 had, probably, 2 harems; bull M lay with 47 cows in the tussac and bull F
had 27 cows on the beach.
Cows newly hauled out looked sleek, with wet coats. They lay with eyes
tightly closed and fore-flippers spread out - looking exhausted. I saw another cow
giving birth. The pup came out tail-first. The mother stayed in one place and
swung her tail from side to side. It took only 4 minutes and the afterbirth was
expelled at the same time as the pup. After birth at 9.50 am the cow swung round
through 180° and nuzzled the pup, making moaning noises. She then lay still. The
pup began to make noises and movements about a minute after birth. The cow lay
head on and nuzzled the pup, or, with head in the air, moaned. The pup barked
for the first time 3 minutes after birth, occasioning a fresh outburst from the cow.
Lying on one side the pup gulped, tremors passing through its body. There was
much mucus dripping from its nose; it was breathing through one nostril most of
the time, the eyes open, but nearly closed. Seven minutes after birth the cow
flipped gravel in a half-hearted way. At 10.01am the pup began to make more
barking noises, and the mother to moan and move around. She backed away from
the pup and made the more normal harsh grunt. The pup was still making
sporadic attempts to bark, but sounded pathetically weak. The mother grunted
and moaned alternately and flipped gravel. The pup’s voice was getting stronger
and its eyes opened wide at 10.04 am. Some cows became very bloody on their
sides, because they scooped the placenta instead of gravel! The pup raised head
and moved at 10.06 am, but its uncoordinated fore-flippers fell away and his chin
hit the shingle with a smack. At 10.13am it started looking for milk, the bark quite
strong. The cow didn’t co-operate and made mock bites at her pup’s head.
Total for areas 1-14: 64 bulls, 760 cows, 249 pups, altogether 1073 seals.
I returned for lunch and then went to harem 6a and killed a date-marked cow;
fortunately the bull was in the water. I then killed another cow, which had been
hauled out for 4 days. The examinations took some time, and then I skinned the pup,
returned to camp and started the genny – charging the new battery and one of the
old ones. The new one started gassing strongly almost immediately.
A very fine sunset developed with the cloud from the west coast pouring over
the Allardyce Range, and a bright clear moonlight night. I had a sched with Charlie
and received some news about shipping and a press message. I listened to Mozart
Violin Concerto no. 1, and woke at intervals during the night to change the distilled
water in which I was washing the Zenker-formol fixed material, for later histological
examination.
Next day began very windy, but the rain had ceased. Bull A at 6a had 38 cows
and 16 pups; 13 cows had split off from the southern end and formed a new harem
with a small bull; and 6b under bull E had 13 cows and 4 pups. There were four small
harems in area 4, one with a medium bull in charge, 6 small harems in area 2. All
these small harems were on the beach and about 30-40 yards apart. A large/medium
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