Marine Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 23, 2006

Young Seal Strandings Puzzle Biologists

Hooded seals that normally prefer to live on ice in the Arctic region have been spotted farther south in increasing numbers, puzzling biologists. In a typical year, 25 to 35 hooded seals might venture to the U.S. Northeast Coast and get stranded, typically in winter. Seldom are they ever spotted...

Oct 10, 2006

Seals Stop Shivering to Survive Extreme Dives

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA—While diving, hooded seals can handle oxygen levels so low they'd be lethal to humans. Now scientists are beginning to understand how they do it: The seals stop shivering and go with the chilly flow. By switching off the shivers, which are designed to produce heat and keep...

Feb 7, 2007

Female Seals Cruise to Choose Best Mate

In their own version of Match.com, female fur seals have particular preferences when it comes to partners. And they're willing to trek long distances to find that perfect mate. A team of scientists studied a colony of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. What...

May 15, 2007

Another Hooded Seal Mystery Revealed

Hooded seals are shrouded in mystery. They emerge from the North Atlantic Ocean onto ice flows only four days each year, where they birth pups, nurse them and breed in one go—then wander the Atlantic for thousands of miles, as far south as the Panama Canal. But wildlife scientists have...

Aug 6, 2007

Seals Wired to Collect Deep-Sea Data

Sea creatures dwelling in the freezing waters at the bottom of the world hold many secrets, including clues to growing changes in global climate. Now one of the top predators in these waters has been armed with satellite-transmitting devices to help researchers peer into this mysterious world surrounding Antarctica. The...

May 11, 2008

Seal Tries Sex with Penguin

A seal has been caught on camera trying to have sex with a penguin. This seems to be the first known example of a sexual escapade between a mammal and another kind of vertebrate such as a bird, reptile or fish, although some mammals are known to have attempted sexual...

Apr 22, 2009

Walking Seal Called Missing Link in Evolution

A fossil of a primitive walking seal with four legs and webbed feet has been found in the Canadian Arctic and dated to be at least 20 million years old. The newfound species, dubbed Puijila darwini, might be the long-sought missing link in the evolution of pinnipeds — a group...

Jul 17, 2009

How Penguins & Seals Survive Deep Dives

This Behind the Scenes article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. My main research interest is physiology in extreme environments, particularly those with low levels of oxygen. Animals that thrive in such hypoxic environments are ideal species to investigate for how their physiology responds. In...

Feb 26, 2010

Seals Sleep As They Sink in the Sea

When northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) migrate between their breeding and foraging grounds, they spend as long as eight months at a time at sea. They’re almost always underwater, devoting only a few minutes to breathing at the surface between dives—hardly long enough for a nap. After a sip of...

Apr 27, 2010

Antarctic Seals Counted in New Sound Census

Secretive or rare marine mammals can prove problematic for scientists who want to take a head count. But a new model provides a different way for researchers to census these species — don't look for them, listen instead. A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales in...

Jun 10, 2010

Seals' Whiskers Can Track Fish From Hundreds of Feet Away

Blindfolded seals can track passing miniature submarines from 130 feet away by using their extraordinarily sensitive whiskers to follow the wakes the mini-subs leave behind in the water. Turns out, seals can also use their whiskers to track fish from even farther away, researchers now find. Past studies with mini-subs...

Jun 15, 2010

Antarctic Seals Go Where Scientists Can't

Gustavo Seal (Image credit: Joachim Plötz.) The bull elephant seal Gustavo here is carrying a transmitter. This seal and others like him are now helping scientists gather research where people cannot go the icy ocean around the South Pole. During the Antarctic winter, the Southern Ocean is covered with ice,...

Dec 6, 2010

Six Seal Species May Be Headed to Endangered List

The threat of diminishing sea ice and loss of snow cover has motivated the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to propose listing four subspecies of ringed seals, found in the Arctic Basin and the North Atlantic, and two distinct population segments of bearded seals in the Pacific Ocean, as threatened...

Dec 15, 2010

Unmanned Aircraft Tracks Arctic Seals, Sea Ice Decline

An unmanned drone soaring over the Arctic recently had two missions: Take pictures of the declining sea ice and pinpoint the location of seals on chunks of the ice. The ScanEagle, as the aircraft is called, is the first of its kind to monitor sea ice and seals in this...

May 12, 2011

Gallery: Seals of the World

Spotted Seal (Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)The spotted seal, or Phoca largha, lives in the northern Pacific Ribbon seal (Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)The ribbon seal, a northern Pacific native, looks like it wants to bring the penguin look to the Arctic. Killer whale and Weddell...