Dear MARMAM colleagues,
On behalf of my co-authors, I’m happy to announce our recent publication: Grabham, A.A., McIntyre, T., Bester, M., Bornemann, H., Lewis, C., Lübcker, N., Postma, M., van Tonder, A. & Wege, M. In Press. First photographic evidence of skin and hair molting as separate components in the Ross seal. Mar. Mammal Sci., e70241. (doi:10.1111/mms.70241) The paper is open access, available here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.70241 Summary: This study clarifies the molting sub-strategy of a data-deficient Antarctic phocid. Rather than undergoing a catastrophic molt, Ross seals exhibit a consistent epidermal shedding that aligns them with a subset of ice-associated phocids. This finding adds the semi-catastrophic molt as a sub-strategy of pinniped molting and calls for its assessment in other pinnipeds. Why epidermal molting occurs in a semi-catastrophic form and a catastrophic one may relate to thermal constraints. As ice habitats shift under the effects of climate change, understanding the diversity of molting strategies will be essential for predicting the vulnerability of ice-specialized pinnipeds. All the best, Dr Alex Grabham Postdoctoral Fellow: Joyful by Nature Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury Ōtautahi, Aotearoa | Christchurch, New Zealand
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