Our friend the Subantarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus tropicalis)

At last something more zoological in nature.

Quick background as to how and why I am here on Gough, and why I enjoyed this weeks activities so much.

June 2010 I applied to go to Marion Island (Google is your friend) as a sealer or birder. Any role as a field biologist would have been great. But I was unfortunate that they had already filled all the spots on the team that was to be departing in March/April 2011. I initially applied as it was a great opportunity to get valuable working experience in the field I had studied.
But despite not making it too Marion, I was later contacted and asked if I would like to apply for a position as a metkassie here on Gough. I figured this is a good an opportunity as any, why not?!
I reasoned that despite not working full time in my field of study I would still be able to do a bit of networking and assist with some of the biological projects that are on the go.
On the way over I set about chatting to as many people as possible who had plans on doing research on the island. And it paid off. I got a better acquainted with a couple of the major role players and volunteered to assist in any way possible.
This turned out to be a pretty successful approach and I was later told by a senior lecturer from the University Of Pretoria, that he would like to monitor the seal population on the island.
Something that they try do each year, but generally proves to be rather difficult due to a lack of volunteers.
It is not exactly a full time job, and I am only required to head out once or twice a month to collect scat samples or weigh seal pups. None the less, when opportunity knocks, you answer. So I did.
Now looking at it from my current position I am rather lucky. I have been given the opportunity to gain a knew skill and learn more about another scientific discipline (meteorology), as well as do a bit of research in the field in which I studied, and ultimately gain the valuable work experience I have been seeking for some time now. All of this in one of the most remote places on earth. A very unique opportunity indeed, and one for which I am extremely grateful.

This past week I had to start with the first round of weighing for this seasons pups. The seal pups are around 30 days old and now we needed to establish an average weight for males and females at this point. It's a pretty simple exercise which is made tricky by the terrain.
I knew what I was in for as I was already exposed to this late in September during the takeover period, shortly after our arrival. So I had a firm grasp of what needed to be done.
I recruited the services of my trusty colleague Jack and we made our way down to a beach called "Tumble down". It's a half hour walk from the base which is made slightly awkward by the vegetation having grown due to all the rain recently. At a few points we lost the path and had to guess where it could be, eventually returning to it. Once we arrived at the cliff we could not find the rope to access the beach. This also thanks to the wild growth of the vegetation. What a start it was proving to be. But not allowing ourselves to become disheartened we searched and succeeded in finding the rope and made our way down to the beach which is about 25 meters down.

Tumble Down 

Tumble Down Beach

Amongst all the penguin chicks which are currently in molt we made our way in a flurry of blowing feathers to a rocky beach which is a favourite pupping ground. The walk was less than ideal as you step over large boulders close to the waters edge and try to navigate amongst the maze of sleeping  seals. Full grown males which tend to be rather grumpy when woken up. Fortunately they shuffle off with only a growl and a bark and allow us to pass. Can still be rather unnerving when you step from one boulder to the other and there is a seal sneakily napping between them. A startled seal means an angry seal. Good thing we took along a strong stick just in case. Which was useful on more than one occasion.

Penguin chick in molt

Penguin chick just before molting

We eventually started seeing one or two fluffy black pups and we could get to work.
We had to weigh 50 males and 50 females for a good sample group.
How we go about weighing the seals can be rather risky as we obviously have to pick them up. This means you run the risk of being bitten. So it requires caution and commonsense. At this point it's not to bad due to the pups being rather slow. But as they get bigger this changes.
Generally we quickly grab a  hind flipper, on the odd occasion if it is aware of what is going on we will push the head a way with a boot and grab the flipper preventing it from turning and biting.

Grab the flipper

The seal is then held up by the flipper as a length of sliding rope is fastened around the flipper and the seal then suspended by this.

Rope fastened around the flipper

Hang from scale

 
It's as easy as that, and not painful for the seal at all. The only reason they may occasionally shuffle and shake is due to the confusion of being woken and hoisted off the ground so suddenly. Mostly they are pretty cooperative which makes things much easier.
Easy as all of this sounds it does get rather tough when you are surrounded by the larger adults, are standing on a very uneven surface with a seal swinging about at just arms length away. This explains the rip in my pants and the teeth marks on my boots.
And after about the 50th seal, 6 kilos does begin to get rather heavy. Not complaining though. It just meant Jack could take over for a while whilst I wrote up the data.
We managed around 70 pups at Tumble Down and had to try find some more. We then made our way back to the top off the cliff and headed to Seal Beach to get the remainder for the sample group.
We were rather shocked when we only found 2 pups. As during September we had very little trouble finding more. We may not have found many pups but we were rather startled by a large elephant seal.
We had just come around a large boulder and were looking up the beach for any pups when we were greeted by a snort. Our presence had surprised him just as much as his surprised us, and saw Jack and myself jumping a few feet back in the opposite direction.
Once we realised what was going on we took a closer look and relished the opportunity to get up close for a few photos.

Elephant seal bull

Seeing as we had no luck at seal beach we realised we would have to come down the next day and walk further around from Seal Beach toward the opposite side of Tumble Down to get the remainder. After yesterdays effort this was considerably easier. Although most of the time was spent walking to get to the pupping grounds Jack and I got to enjoy one of the few sunny and warm days whilst also stumbling across an Antarctic Turn. What a pleasure it was to be able to get up close to such a striking bird. Was the highlight of the day, next to watching a pup chase after Jack after he had just placed it back down.

Antarctic Turn

 
Was a great time away from the base and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to do some more scientific work. It also really helped for both of us to unwind.
Like a said last week, it's like living in the Twilight Zone. We unwind by doing hard work.
Lets hope that we can find a little bit more hard work to balance things out!

As for next week. Well, hopefully I will be able to spend the weekend at The Glen. Return trip is planned for Friday.
This is made all the more exciting having read about the very first scientific team that built a base at the Glen, in the book "Mountains in the Sea" authored by the team leader of the scientific survey team: Martin Holdgate.
Here's hoping for good weather and the opportunity to share in some of Gough's rich history.