A new study involving elephant seals fitted with caps similar to those worn by humans in sleep clinics to measure electroencephalographic activity, or brain waves, has revealed the seals take short naps during deep dives. Unlike other marine mammals, they enter rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, with accompanying paralysis, but do so at depths below those occupied by their predators.Â
DNA research has shown that Mycobacterium pinnipedii, which today causes tuberculosis (TB) primarily in pinnipeds, infected human populations living in the coastal areas of Peru prior to European colonisation
The earliest cases are found in Peru and northern Chile and are dated to ~700 CE, with possible cases occurring as early as 290 CE.
Every year, many marine animals migrate between foraging areas and breeding sites, often managing their movements with precision.
For pregnant female elephant seals, they travel more than 10,000 kilometres across the Eastern North Pacific Ocean annually, before returning to their breeding beaches where they will give birth within five days of their arrival.
How do they achieve such precise timing, without any GPS or navigation software?
Most of these sounds were measured at more than 21 kHz, which is beyond the range of human hearing of 20 to 20,000 hertz. A particular high-pitched whistle came in at 49.8 kHz. When the seals harmonised multiple tones, the resultant sound may exceed 200 kHz, which is beyond what even cats and dogs can hear).
The discovery was the subject of a paper published online in the journal The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
The discovery of the extinct monk seal species came about after an international team of biologists examined seven fossil specimens (including a complete skull) found on south Taranaki beaches in New Zealand between 2009 and 2016.
Named Eomonachus belegaerensis, the new species was about 2.5m long and weighed around 200 to 250kg. It is believed to have lived in the waters around New Zealand three million years ago.
Some land animals like rats and shrews use their whiskers to explore, forage and move around. For the first time, a team of researchers, led by Robyn Grant of Manchester Metropolitan University, were able to show that pinnipeds too use their whiskers in a similar fashion.
The study, published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A sought to measure and compare whisker movements and control amongst three pinniped species—California sea lions, harbor seals and Pacific walruses.
According to new research, offshore wind farms may become seal hunting grounds. Although the long-term environmental impact remains in question. Located offshore, wind farms are banks of wind turbines that harness the wind's energy to produce electricity.
Between 2009 and 2011, the team of scientists from tested nasal swabs from more than 900 marine mammals from 10 different species off the Pacific Coast from Alaska to California.
They detected H1N1 infection in two northern elephant seals and antibodies to the virus in an additional 28 elephant seals, indicating more widespread exposure. None of the infected seal showed any clinical signs of illness
Documentation of lung collapse and estimation of the depth at which collapse occurs has been difficult and only obtained in a few species.
Researchers led by Birgitte McDonald at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography netted a female adult California sea lion (Zalophus californianus), anaesthetised the animal and fitted it with loggers to record oxygen pressure in its main artery and the time and depths to which it dived.
