The Pinniped Post

So, there I was searching for Pinnipeds on Disney+, and I typed in the wonderful, beautiful word "seal" into the search bar.  I expected to find documentaries or something somewhat educational.  Instead, I got "Sammy, the Way-Out Seal." Take a look at Sammy.  Tell me, what is wrong with this picture?  If you are having trouble with this question, please see my previous post " What is the Difference Between a Sea and a Sea Lion? "  Yes, that Pinniped is a SEA LION.  I repeat, a Sea Lion !  Not a Seal ... Sammy is a Sea Lion!  Now, this film was made in 1962 and maybe everybody called this sort of Pinniped a "seal," sort of like how "Starfish" are now called "Sea Stars" ... but I doubt it.  In any event, I found it extremely distracting and disturbing, and started shaking and crying in the corner of my couch in rage. Do you know what else is distracting and disturbing?  Placing a Sea Lion in a baby carriage.  How exactly...

Have you ever wondered how Seals can locate their fibsh ("fish" in Pinniped speak - see the video of Egg for educational content on the language of Pinnipeds)? So have many researchers! My drawing of Harbor Seal, with close-up pictures of different Pinniped whiskers What sense do Seals use to hunt fibsh?  I am not sure how they use sight, taste, or smell to hunt fibsh, and this is something that I would like to find out more about later in another post. After doing some research on this topic, I was surprised that they used touch by feeling vibrations in the water through their whiskers (called vibrissae).  When fibsh swim underwater, they create vorticies, which are disruptions in the water that fibsh make when they swim.  See the figure below. Fibsh leaving disturbances in the water as it swims. From the Doctoral Dissertation by Heather Rachel Seem, 2015. Passive Wake Detection Using Seal Whisker-Inspired Sensing. Ph.D. Thesis. MIT/WHOI, 2015-03 ....

Last weekend I visited the Mystic Aquarium and took part in their "Sea Lion Spotlight" program.  This is a shorter encounter that occurs during one of their daily Sea Lion Shows, where the person taking part in the encounter will come up onto the stage and briefly interact with one of the Sea Lions in the show.  I absolutely loved it!   Complimentary rose, given to me by Cali the Sea Lion. In the past, I had taken part in Mystic Aquarium's "Seals Up Close" program and loved it - you can read about this encounter at this link .  There are also may other encounters which you can read about at this link , including a "Sea Lions Up Close" program (which is on my "to do" list).  The "Sea Lion Spotlight" encounter is held during one of the Sea Lion shows, where you will have a couple of minutes to interact with a Sea Lion on the stage during the show for a close-up and personal view. Introducing Cali, the Sea Lion th...

While thinking about the rotundness of the chonky Baikal Seal, I wondered if there were any other "chonkier" Seals that looked rounder.  I wondered if I could actually calculate a ranking of seal "chonkness."  Because Seals come in different lengths, I had to compare the width of a Seal in comparison to their length.  For example, if a Seal has a 7 foot width but a 25 foot length, they will not be as "chonky" as a Seal with a 4 foot width and a 4 foot length, who would be a perfect sphere of rotund beauty and an absolute chonk. Since Seals with a longer length remind me of a cucumber, I called those who were more oblong than spherical ones with "High Cucumber."  Of course, those Seals who were more of little squished ovals becoming close to spheres of happiness are those with "High Chonk."  Please see my drawings below.  High Chonk:  Seal Approaching a Spherical Shape My drawing  High Cucumber:  Seal Approaching an ...

In the late 1990s there was a project known as SLEWTH - "Sea Lions Exploring Whales and Their Habitats."  Researchers attached harnesses with cameras to the Sea Lions and trained the Sea Lions to swim next to Whales, and record the behavior of the Whales.  Two Sea Lions names "Sake" and "Beaver" were trained to follow a model Whale in the ocean, and then encountered real Whales. Photo from website discussing SLEWTH When the Sea Lions encountered real Whales in the ocean, the Sea Lions were agitated.  Beaver was so agitated after encountering a Whale that he jumped out of the water and back into the research boat.  What the researchers needed to do was get the Sea Lions more used to Whales. In the late 1990s, Sea World at San Diego was rehabilitating a Gray Whale named "JJ." JJ rehabilitating at San Diego Sea World To help Beaver and Sake get used to being around larger animals and help them get information about how different ...

It is a fact that Pinnipeds are cute.  Really, this post should not exist because it is such a commonly-known fact.  See, for example, my photo below of Cobh, the pupper Harbor Seal at the Mystic Aquarium. Cute. However, there may be some of you out there who want proof that Pinnipeds are cute.  Fine. What people find cute has been studied by Psychologists.  For example, in the paper " Baby Schema In Human and Animal Faces Induces Cuteness Perception and Gaze Allocation in Children " Psychologists found that people find the attributes of having a round face, big eyes, high forehead, small nose, and small mouth as being judged as "cute" when given a set of photos of different people, babies, and animals to examine. Pinnipeds fit all of these attributes.  Round face and big eyes?  Always. Also, derpiness is cuteness Small nose and mouth?  Of course! Fur Seal is upset that you would question his cuteness. High forehead...

With the exception of the Baikal Seals that live in freshwater in the Caspian Sea, Seals live in the salty oceans.  However, every now and then you can read about a Seal who swam up a freshwater river. These rivers that the Seals were found in are freshwater, so Seals can survive in freshwater for some amount of time as long as there are fish to eat.  I like to think that they also hunt for wild jello cubes, but I have never seen a jello cube outside of an aquarium. So, what kind of water is in a Seal habitat at aquariums - freshwater or saltwater?  Members of the "Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums" (an organization that comes up with guidelines for aquariums and marine mammal parks to follow to keep marine mammals happy and safe) keep water salinity (the amount of salt in the water) at not less than 22 Parts Per Thousand, per guidelines found at  https://www.ammpa.org/membership/standards-guidelines .  That is about 4 teaspoons o...