New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Notes on Antarctic wildlife: Ross seals Ommatophoca rossii and emperor penguins Aptenodytes forsteri

JOHN F. SPLETTSTOESSER

21 Rockledge Road
P.O. Box 88
Spruce Head
Maine 04859 U.S.A.

MARIA GAVRILO

Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
St. Petersburg, Russia

CARMEN FIELD
CONRAD FIELD

P.O. Box 2551
Homer
Alaska 99603 U.S.A.

PETER HARRISON

P.O. Box 1171
Port Townsend
Washington 98368 U.S.A.

MIKE MESSICK

P.O. Box CH644
Chisipite
Harare, Zimbabwe

PETER OXFORD

Casilla 17-07-9668
Quito, Ecuador

FRANK S. TODD

Ecocepts International
8958 Kobe Way
San Diego
California 92123 U.S.A.

Abstract  Systematic observations on birds and mammals were carried out in the 1996/97 austral summer in Antarctica while on a circumnavigation of the entire continent by the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov. A total of 22 Ross seals Ommatophoca rossii were recorded during the period 9 December 1996-16 January 1997 of that 65 day cruise, with 75% of them found in light to heavy pack ice conditions. The highest abundance was in the Riiser-Larsen Sea (between 14deg.E and 35deg.E longitude). Half of the seals were observed over the shelf zone, while others were over continental slope to deep ocean. Discussion of all sea-ice habitats from all sightings of Ross seals from the 1996/97 summer is presented here, along with opportunistic sightings of Ross seals from the same icebreaker in December 1992-January 1993 and in 1997/98 along the coastline from about 57deg.E to 100deg.E. An unusually large concentration of Ross seals was observed during an 8 h period near Gaussberg (66deg.13[[minute]]S, 89deg.35[[minute]]E) on 7 January 1993, when a minimum of 40 Ross seals were counted. A search for an emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri colony was made in November - December 1997 in the area of the West Ice Shelf, where a colony at Pingvin Island was discovered in 1956 and last seen in 1960. The original population of 30 000 birds was not found, but a smaller subcolony of about 200 breeding pairs (estimated) was found, perhaps a remnant of the original colony which was forced to re-locate because of a major breakup of West Ice Shelf in 1968.

Keywords  Ross seal Ommatophoca rossii; emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri; Antarctica; sea-ice habitats

Z99013
Received 22 April 1999; accepted 16 November 1999

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