For the past two weeks we have had numerous elephant seals on the island, although all of these have consisted of either immatures or sub-adult stages. Six days ago however, our first bull (Andre) arrived, and was followed by our first pregnant cow who arrived yesterday.
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| Me behind Andre. He is big! |
We have also started to tag individuals, so I have been practicing on immature seals before graduating to the larger guys.
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| Tagging an immature under the supervision of Ryan |
We have also been stamping large males and cows to easily keep track of them from further away, rather than entering the colony to read small flipper tags. This is usually done with a stamp attached to a pole, with either dark or blonde hair dye, although with the large males who have just finished eating insane amounts at sea before not eating for several months, we are sometimes able to write directly on them. This looks harder, although is less stressful for them. Below are two shots, one of me "sneaking up on" "Lil Nibbler", our Sub-adult stage 3 (SA3), and then writing on him with dye from a tube (photos by RJ).
Now that our first cow has arrived, the males are becoming increasingly protective. Today Andre picked up an immature by the head and shook him, resulting in probably fatal injuries. Injuries aren't always accrued by purpose however. Yesterday Andre and Pete (the second largest male) chased a few SA1s and 2s from the colony, and as they were scrambling away, a juvenile got in the way.
Warning: Contains blood (although the immature was fine).
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