Weddell Seal Mating System Data from Antarctic Breeding Seasons

McMurdo Sound Weddell seal data collected during 1997/1998 and 1998/1999 breeding seasons. The dataset includes acoustic tracking of males, health condition measurements, vocalization recordings, and paternity analysis from skin samples. It was produced by AU_AADC under ASAC Project 2184.

Use Cases

• Analyze male territorial dynamics based on acoustic tracking data mentioned in the description
• Model relationships between male characteristics and mating success based on paternity assignment results
• Study acoustic communication functions based on recorded vocalizations and playback experiments

Strengths

• Data covers two full breeding seasons (1997/1998 and 1998/1999)
• Includes multiple data types: acoustic tracking, morphometrics, vocalizations, and genetic samples
• Fieldwork involved 104 seal days of pinger deployment in the first season

Limitations

• Many files are in an unknown format, requiring manual inspection after download
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Last updated 1998-12-10 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified

Provenance

Source

AU_AADC

Collection Method

Field study involving acoustic tracking, immobilization for measurements, vocalization recording, playback experiments, and genetic sampling.

Time Range

1997-1999

Freshness

1998-12-10 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Turtle Rock colony, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica (77.727S, 166.85E)