Seal Counting

One, another one, another one and another one. How many is that? Lot's of ones!

We counted 427 cows in this harem

One of the many projects the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (TASPAWS) rangers work on is an annual census of elephant seal numbers. The number of females within a harem are the main focus of the count, with pups that have already been weaned or dead pups also included. The mothers of those pups would have already made their way back into the sea.

So here's a few photos from when I helped out with the count near the station and next week I'll have photos from the census day count - I'm helping out with the count from Hurd Point, around the East coast to Lusitania Bay. The penguins are back so the photos should be dramatically different from the last time I was there.

After feeding for 28 days on the fattiest milk in the mammal world, this pup has been weaned and left to fend for itself

A fur seal pup was seen with the ele's

Missed seeing a birth by not very long. Here you can see the scavenger birds cleaning up the placenta

A dead pup that the birds have already started on.

They see him rollin' - and they shit themselves. The bulls will bounce over anything that's in their way in order to prevent another male from getting into their harem.