BACKGROUND In recent years, the euthanasia of seals has been discussed internationally and concern has been raised regarding the use of rifles, the effect of different calibres, and which calibres are sufficient for humane euthanasia. This study therefore investigated the effect of different firearm calibres on euthanasia of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) in traps, and provides information for...

The Concorde produces audible sonic booms as it passes 15 km north of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, where gray and harbor seals occur year round. The purpose of this research was to assess how sonic booms affect these seals. The intensity of the booms was measured and three types of data (beach counts, frequency of behavior, and heart rate) were collected before and after booms during the breeding...

The reasons for the decline in some Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) stocks in Newfoundland and southern Labrador are not fully understood, but many resource users consider predation by seals in rivers and nearshore waters to be a contributing factor. To address these concerns, local ecological knowledge (LEK) interviews with resource users (n = 57) were conducted at 29 rivers throughout the Provi...

Weddell seals are polar predators that must partition their time between many behaviours, including hunting prey at depth and breathing at the surface. Although they have been well studied, little is known about how foraging behaviour changes when access to breathing holes is restricted, such as in the isolated-hole paradigm. The current study took advantage of previously gathered data for seal...

When resources are limited or patchy, a species may develop some degree of resource partitioning to reduce intra-specific competition. Development of intra-specific resource partitioning is more pronounced in species with clear phenotypic variation among individuals (e.g. age or sex). Southern elephant seals Mirounga leonina have pronounced sexual dimorphism and range widely in size and foragin...

Aquatic animals use a variety of strategies to reduce the energetic cost of locomotion. Efficient locomotion is particularly important for breath-holding divers because high levels of exercise may quickly deplete oxygen reserves, leading to the termination of a dive. We investigated the swimming behavior of eight adult Weddell seals, which are proficient divers, in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. A ...

The propulsive motions of swimming harp seals (Phoca groenlandica Erxleben) and ringed seals (Phoca hispida Schreber) were studied by filming individuals in a flume. The seals swam at velocities ranging from 0.6 to 1.42 m s-1. Locomotion was accomplished with alternate lateral sweeps of the hind flippers generated by lateral flexions of the axial body in conjunction with flexion of the flippers...

Electronic markets have successfully adopted third party trust seals as a self-regulatory mechanism to enhance consumer trust. While there exist many papers supporting the effectiveness of trust signals, interaction between trusts seals and contextual factors in e-commerce (e.g., value of shopping carts, number of trust seals displayed, shopper experience and retailer’s sales volume) is an unde...

Language constructs for defining abstract types commonly come in two varieties: those that add and remove seals dynamically as values cross the abstraction boundary, and those that define the boundary statically using a type signature. Abstract types in dynamically-typed languages are generally defined using seals whereas statically-typed languages more typically use a signature; two prominent ...

Northern Elephant Seal Skin Disease (NESSD) is a severe, ulcerative, skin condition of unknown cause affecting primarily yearling northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris); it has been associated with decreased levels of circulating thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Abnormalities of the thyroid gland that result in decreased hormone levels (hypothyroidism) can result in hair los...