Taping Noises Made By Seals

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30965, 22 January 1966, Page 16

Taping Noises Made By Seals

Dr Carleton Ray, of the New York Zoological Society, returned to Christchurch on Wednesday from Antarctica’s Victoria Land coast where for the last few weeks he has been taping underwater the sounds of seals. “There’s such an incredible number that I seriously doubt if I’ll ever sort them all out,” he said. Last year Dr. Ray completed 76 miles of tape during similar studies of seal acoustics in the McMurdo Sound region. This year, however, he only hag about 10 hours of completed tape. He said the sounds made by seals were important as the mammals used them in much the same way as humans used sight. Sound, he added, travelled a mile a second under water.

During a journey from McMurdo Station to Cape Adare he saw all four species of Antarctic seal—the Ross, Leopard, Crab-eater and Weddell.

Dr. Ray said each of these seals had different characteristics. “The Weddell is a fish eater which seems to stay close to shore. The crab-eater lives in the open pack and does not like shore ice. The Ross seal is something of a mystery although we saw 25 of them. They are pretty rare creatures. As for the leopard seal it’s the longest of the

seals and is the only predator. It likes penguins, fish and other seals. Yet, you know, it is not a vicious animal." In fact Dr. Ray said he was prejudiced in favour of the leopard seal. “They have a bearing about them and unlike the other species they appear to be more on the ball.” After acoustic studies, Dr. Ray said, he would like to get into the population dynamics of seals. He considers one more year will finish the work he is doing in the McMurdo Sound area. A future place of work is likely to be the Palmer Peninsula which, Dr. Ray said, was rich in marine life.