Today was a very interesting day at The Marine Mammal Center. I didn't get bit in the butt like I did last week (it wasn't a hard bite; didn't come close to breaking the skin), but I got involved in several new-to-me things.

This morning I learned how to restrain elephant seal pups so they can be tube fed. (Prior to this, I've been doing the actual tubing where we insert a long tube down the animal's esophagus and into the stomach, then use a large "syringe" to feed them a tasty herring milkshake.) But restraining is much more difficult - you quickly wrap a towel around their head to subdue them and protect yourself from bites, then kneel on the ground straddling and immobilizing the animal (hence the kneepads) while your partner tubes them. This can be tough when you have a strong, active four foot-long seal!

Working with animals isn't all cute, fuzzy cheerfulness, however. Early this morning, as we were starting our feedings, I walked into a pen only to find the animal dead. This was the first death I've encountered on one of my shifts, so it was sad. You just have to remember that we are a hospital and every animal we care for is in some way sick or injured, so this is part of life.

If there was an up side to losing that seal, it was that I was able to watch its necropsy. Even though I've previously worked with preserved (human) cadavers, I've never before watched a necropsy/autopsy, so this was extremely interesting. The vet student performing the necropsy was very informative, explaining what she was doing and telling me all sorts of physiological facts as she worked. Not only did I get my introduction to elephant seal anatomy, I was also able to dissect the lungs and a kidney. (Pinnipeds and cetaceans have bizarre, amazing kidneys. They normally do not drink fresh water, and their kidneys have to both filter out an excess of salt while reclaiming enough water to keep the animals alive.) It turns out this seal died from a lungworm (Otostrongylus circumlitus) infection, so at least it wasn't as a result of something any of us did.

On a lighter note:
Here are photos of some of our patients, and recordings of elephant seals - 7 second recording/50KB or 20 seconds/150KB (they sound like someone doing a poor impression of a chicken).