Randall Davis, from the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University; Terrie Williams, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and Lee Fuiman, associate director of the University of Texas Marine Science Institute, have long studied Weddell seals, their research going back to the 1990s.
The group marveled at the animal's navigating skills. Weddell seals excel at deep diving when they hunt, but like all mammals they need oxygen, so when it's time to come up for air they know exactly how to locate holes in the ice in time to breathe again, before they drown. The researchers observed the seals finding holes in the ice with incredible precision.
How did the seals know how far from holes they could swim before they needed to turn around and head for the surface? Plans are underway to learn the answer.
As their notion of a magnetic-field-based navigation system is at this point a hypothesis, the team plans to spend the next three years observing a group of seals that will be rigged with video and data recording gear. The animals will be set loose in three areas of McMurdo Sound. Their release points in the sound will correspond with places where the scientists have in great detail mapped the magnetic field.
The team will track the seals' behavior when they encounter different magnetic fields. Once they marry the seals' dive data with the magnetic locations, they hope to have a more definitive understanding of whether or not the creatures are employing the magnetic field to hunt, navigate, and, in effect, survive.
From Discovery News
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