Tag Archives: elephant seal pup

4th e-seal pup this season

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Ecological

  • The female elephant seal that hauled out yesterday onto Great Race gave birth overnight on the lawn between the science centre and the desalinator bunker.  The pup looks big and healthy.  Several birds have been sneaking in to snack on the placenta and umbilical cord.  Also the amniotic sac was visible on the lawn nearby.  The mother has what appears to be a pale green flipper tag with very worn out ID numbers. ( greenish- tag # 5928)
  • Chunk was more interested in mating than in checking out the new pup.
  • A west wind picked up over the day up to 40 knots in the evening gusting close to 50 knots with heavy raiin.

Maintenance

  • Month end reporting
  • Cleaning, packing, tidying for shift end.

pup deceased

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Ecological

  • In the morning on Feb 3rd the second pup that had been born on Great Race (on Jan 27) was motionless.  The pup had previously seemed a bit weak and slow compared to others, since mating began there has been a lot more commotion in the area and the pup was often unable to get out of the way.  It is likely that it was either crushed or suffocated under the weight of the adult elephant seals.  The mother stayed close to the body and was pushing and prodding it with her nose throughout the day.
  • A third female e-seal was hauled out onto Great Race in the morning yesterday.  While not as large as the others were before giving birth she is behaving like the other pregnant females.

Vessels: I returned in the afternoon, there was one eco tour after I got back.

Maintenance:

  • Brought the whaler in on Tuesday, Feb 2nd and sent it to a mechanic to work on electrical problems.  There was a problem with the grounding connection and a few of the wiring connections (GPS, vhf and nav lights have been failing) which have been fixed.
  • picked up some “U” bolts from Slegg for a camera mount attachment
  • started month-end records and reporting.

Third elephant seal born on Middle Rocks

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Alex noted in his last log that he had heard another pup out on middle island and was able to see it from the tower. Today we have a clear shot at it from camera 1 . The pup seems quite lively. The unfortunate thing is that every year there has been a pup born out there, the next big storm washes it off, so as far as we know there has never in the past 8 years been a surviving pup from the middle island.  Here’s hoping for no storms for the next few weeks??? not likely..

third-pup-on-middle-island

 

 

 

River otter and e-seals

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I received this photo today  of a river otter who likes curling up and going to sleep just down the slope from the remote control camera 5 from Pam Birley. Odd behaviour considering that they are usually very secretive out there on the island.

PBrivotterJan2315 I am just doing up my final notes for my oral presentation to the NEB Kinder Morgan TMX hearings in Burnaby on Thursday, and have noted that river and sea otters have not been recognized by the consultants of the oil company as being significant marine  mammals  in the Strait of Juan de Fuca . Only the Humpback and Southern Resident Orcas and the Northern Sealion are considered as representative of the marine mammals in the path of tanker traffic.  So we are supposed to believe that the Northern Sealion is a proxy for all the other marine mammals in terms of impact.

We had pointed out in past submissions that the elephant seal birthing colony is rather unique also, but no separate recognition has been forthcoming for harbour and elephant seal birthing colonies.

Today I had a look at the E-seals on the lawn using  Camera 1 with the following pics.
G. Fletcher

 

west wind and rain

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Ecological

  • Jan 21- visibility low due to rain and mist, wind N 15 knots
  • Jan 22- rain in the morning becoming clear, wind W 15-20 increasing to 30 before noon and becoming light in the evening.
  • elephant seals: mother, pup, other female and Chunk have stayed around the West side of the house all week.  It has been a week since pup birth, the pup is growing quickly and the mother is getting visibly thinner.

Maintenance

  • ran derrick to move logs
  • wood stove repairs- removed old fire bricks, baffle tubes and baffle boards, cleaned fire box. Installed new baffle board and tubes, new fire bricks and blower.
  • built a mesh cover for the second compost container.
  • transferred one more drum of diesel to tidy tank, both tanks now full
  • cut firewood
  • sent inventory list of fluorescent tube fixtures to Chris for upgrading to LEDs.
  • precipitation this week has done well to fill cistern

Other

  • occasional DND blasting at Christopher point throughout the week.

bald eagles

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Ecological

  • N 10-15 N becoming E 25, partly clear sky
  • Pigeon Guillemots made a return to the waters around the island, this is the first time i have seen/heard them since starting my shift
  • 21 bald eagles counted in the reserve.  the broke-beak eagle was perched on a solar panel on the engine building in the morning.
  • Second large female e-seal was by boat house throughout day.  Chuckles down by compost bin.  Mother and pup doing fine.  Chunk has been going off island at night and returning in the morning, staying close to females and keeping Chuckles away.
  • One neck-ringed California sealion seen on west side of main island

Vessels

  • 1 ecotour

Maintenance

  • Contacted tidy tanks re dip chart
  • Contacted re wood stove parts delivery
  • Cut and chopped fire wood
  • Cleared ramp

e-seal pup a male

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Ecological

  • Wind NE 5-10 knots increasing to 15-20 in the morning then becoming light in the afternoon.
  • The e-seal pup was figuring out how to roll on it’s back today which gave a view of its underside where the penis hole was visible behind his umbilical cord. A few seagulls were quite interested in the umbilical cord. They would sneak up while mother and pup were asleep to grab it and try to pull a piece away.  By the end of the day there was only a stub left, the birds have done a good job of post-birth cleanup in the area. The mother is very protective of the pup and growls and chases off anything that gets too close.

Maintenance: 

  • Had let derrick engine oil drain out overnight.  Put new 15 W 40 oil in.
  • Cleared ramp and ran the derrick to clear larger logs

Nursing successfully

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Ecological 

  • Wind 15 knots NE increasing to over 30 knots overnight
  • Just before noon, within 24hrs after birth, I saw the pup take what I believe was its first taste of milk.   There seems to be three key ingredients to successful nursing: motivation, location and suction.  All three have to combine for success, there was a lot of trial and error, and what seems to be frustration, on the way.  Once the pup latched on to the right spot the suction and slurping sounds were clearly audible.  Since nursing has begun, both mother and pup seem less agitated, the pup is taking longer sleeps and the mother is getting more rest.

View from kitchen window with elephant seal family in foreground. In the background a US aircraft carrier identified as a “Unspecified US Govt Vessel” travels at a remarkable 24.5 knots according to the Marine Traffic website.

Vessels

  • 1 ecotour

Maintenance

  • Ran the derrick and lifted out 2 logs.  With engine warm, I drained the engine oil out of the derrick’s old Lister engine and changed the oil filter.
  • Cleared debris from ramp.

Elephant Seal Birth Videos 3- wide angle

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This 3 minute video shows the birth at a wide angle taken on a gopro camera mounted on top of the bunker/desalinator building.  The camera is in a weatherproof housing so the sound is not very good.

At 0:45 the pup is out
At 1:40 Chunk starts climbing over the pathway
And at 2:27 Chunk comes in contact with the pup

Other birth videos:

See Elephant Seal Birth part 1- start and end of birth
See Elephant Seal Birth part 2
See Elephant Seal Birth part 3 wide angle
See Elephant Seal Birth part 4

Mother and pup vocalizations