12 December 1999

Hello again from Antarctica.

Thanks for the replies we received to our last email. As a result, we've added some names to our email list. If you would like to be taken off this list or know of someone that should be added, please let us know. In this note, we are replying to a request from one reader, who asked to see some of the wildlife, especially the penguins here.

Although penguins are a typical symbol for Antarctica, they are difficult to find around McMurdo at this time of year. McMurdo is still surrounded by ice making it hard for penguins to get into the sea and feed on fish. About 30 miles further north, the sea ice has already broken up and there is a rookery (hatching area) for adelie penguins. Adelies are about one foot tall. So far, neither of the two of us have seen any adelies, but we hear that some may come to this area in a month or two when the ice breaks up.

The second species found in this area is the emperor penguin. This bird can be up to three feet tall. Sometimes these animals wander quite far inland from the ice edge. Earlier this week, Bert had the opportunity to see and photograph a lone emperor penguin that had been used for research (at a place called the Penguin Ranch) and had stayed around the camp area after the researchers had left. There are pictures of this penguin attached to some of the messages following this one.

Antarctica is also home to a variety of seals. The one most common to this area is the weddell seal. These are also being extensively studied by scientists here. One group of scientists have attached all kinds of electronics to these weddell seals (including a video camera looking out over their foreheads) to study how they dive and feed. Watching their video footage has been quite interesting. These seals will catch cod weighing over 100 pounds in their mouths and then kill them flailing them about until their necks break. Bert helped this group by building an electrical filter circuit to see if these seals make ultrasonic sounds (like dolphins do). It appears that they do. Bert is fabricating a scale that will be used by another group to weigh these seals (which weigh more than 1000 pounds in some cases).

The third animal seen here this part of the year is the skua. This is a migratory bird about the size of a seagull, but much more aggressive. Skuas survive by eating whatever scraps they can find. In particular, they try to steal penguin eggs from the rookeries. In the past, there was an open dump in McMurdo that attracted lots of skuas. This has been cleaned up. Skuas now hang around and will dive-bomb you if you are carrying any food in your hands when walking outside.

We're still having a good time here. Since Bert took up playing the tuba, Jean decided to start playing the recorder. Maybe we can be a duet some time in the future. Attached is a photo of Jean practicing the recorder in Bert's electronics lab.

Last night, we went to a "Women's Soiree" which was a evening of performances by the women in McMurdo. There were singers, bands, poets, a juggler and a belly dancer who performed. Some people were quite talented.

We are getting ready for a non-commercial Christmas here. As for Christmas shopping, the only store in McMurdo was closed the day after Thanksgiving and mainly sells toiletries and alcohol. There have been some decorations put up on some of the power poles: santas, stars, candy canes, etc. One thing is for sure, we'll have a white Christmas.

Best regards and Merry Christmas, Bert and Jean

P.S. For those of you who have tried to get into our website at www.jeanbert.com, this has not been updated yet, it still contains our wedding photos. Bert is still learning more about how to put together web pages and will then be putting a summary of our Antarctic experiences on the web.

P.P.S. Our official email addresses are jean@jeanbert.com and bert@jeanbert.com. These automatically get forwarded by my brother (Mike's) web server to wherever we are. The email address we are sending this from will disappear in early February, so it's better to use our jeanbert.com email addresses.

Here are several of our favorite penguin photos taken when Bert encountered an emperor penguin several days ago.

penbert2.jpg shows a penguin looking at Bert. These penguins are not afraid of people. They have no natural predators on land (other than skuas, that steal their eggs). In the background is Mount Erebus, a 11,000+ foot volcano.

penbert4.jpg shows Bert following a penguin for a walk. In the background, you can see the Royal Society Range of mountains.

penphot.jpg shows that this penguin didn't mind posing for the photographers. There were four of us taking pictures. Here he is standing pretty while three photographers take his picture, while I record the whole scene. The researchers that were with me each took more than 36 shots of him, as well as some movie footage. He seemed to be enjoying the diversion from just standing on the ice by himself all day.

penslid4.jpg shows how these penguins move when they want to travel quickly over the ice. They get on their belly and ride like a toboggan, pushing with their feet and using their stubby wings for guidance. When moving in this way they can travel as fast as people can run.

Here are several more penguin photos. These are closeups of the penguin.

pengui11.jpg shows a side view with Mount Erebus in the background.

pengui14.jpg shows a close-up of his front.

pengui09.jpg shows the penguin with his wings outstretched.

pengui13.jpg shows the penguin walking.

Here are some photos to show what weddell seals and skuas look like.

sealjean.jpg shows Jean and two weddell seals, to give you an idea how big these animals are. If you are having trouble seeing what part of the seal is what, his head is the part closest to Jean. His flippers are on the far left. Between the two is 1000 lbs. of blubber. We found these seals near a hole they had made (through 8 feet of ice) on a hike we took earlier today.

sealskua.jpg shows a weddell seal and a skua. The skua is probably hoping that the seal will bring up a fish that is too big for him to eat, allowing the skua to get some scraps.

sealhole.jpg shows the holes that these seals make and maintain so they can dive down and get their fish when they're not sleeping on land. If you look carefully, you can see the seal's head in the hole.

sealins1.jpg shows a seal completely outfitted for research. There is a camera mounted to his head, with the videotape machine hooked up further towards the back of his body. He is also wearing depth and speed gages and a compass, so they can calculate where he is swimming. There are various hydrophones and other instruments to record movement of his tail flippers and side flippers and computers to record it all. Most of this instrumentation is mounted to neoprene that is glued on the seal's back. They have shown that the seal is just as fast and can stay under water just as long (over 60 minutes in some cases) with all this gear. The seals are allowed to dive and move about as much as they want, but they always come back to this same hole because there are no other holes within several miles of this one. Each seal is used for four days and set free.

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