The oldest Weddell mom ever recorded has been discovered by our Antarctic field team of Parker Levinson, Evan Shields, and Victor Villalobos. This record setting SuperMom is 32 years old and with her 19th pup. Field team leader Parker Levinson reports that this mom was found at the nearshore pupping colony, Hutton Cliffs.

The previous longevity record was set this season by a 31 year old mom found by the field research team, and tied the study record set in 2014. The long-term Weddell seal database that has been developed by the Weddell seal population study over the more than half a century that the project has been tracking Weddells seals in the Erebus Bay study area is what has made it possible to determine these seal mom's ages and the number of pups born to each mom over her lifetime.

It is also interesting to note that all three of these thirty-something year olds, the new 32 year old mom and the two previous record holding 31 year olds, were found at or near the Hutton Cliffs pupping colony. This is a nearshore colony where many of the prime age Weddell moms tend to haul out to give birth on top of the sea ice.

In a future post we hope to explore more about the significant locations of these thirty-something Weddell SuperMoms–where each was born in the study area, and where they gave birth to their numerous pups. And it will be very interesting to learn how many of this new record holder's pups survived and went on to have pups of their own, and whether those pups have had pups!

– Mary Lynn Price