Site of the Day for Thursday, December 13, 2001 2001 Antarctic Expedition
The Foraging Biology of Weddell Seals Sounds like the biology field trip of your worst nightmare, doesn't it? Not a bit of it! Turn up the thermostat or put on an extra sweater and explore this fascinating website. "The Expedition: Our research team is in Antarctica conducting a scientific investigation concerning the feeding biology of Weddell seals. These large phocid seals must hunt and capture fish while diving under the frozen Antarctic sea ice. To accomplish this, Weddell seals travel to great depths in freezing, dark water where the pressure is so high that it squeezes their lungs to a fraction of their normal size. AND the seals must capture their prey while holding their breath. The question is, how do they do it? The purpose our expedition is to answer this question so that we may better understand the biology of the animals living in the Antarctic ecosystem." - from the website Discover the answers these scientists found. Complete with great photographs, (which make you wonder how tough were the conditions since the scientists wore t-shirts in their living quarters) undersea sounds of the seals and explanatory graphs, the site offers a wealth of detail, not only of the Weddell seals but Antarctica itself. This is a site you might wish to bookmark for any budding biologists in your family. Dive over to the site for the best biology field trip you never had to take. http://www.biology.ucsc.edu/people/williams/antarctic/ A.M. Holm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> SotD Ashlists archives - http://www.mail-archive.com/site-of-the-day@ashlists.org/ SotD Website - http://www.ashlists.org/sotd/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and in the BODY type: unsubscribe site-of-the-day