EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Each week a different image of our fascinating environment is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional ecologist.

19-25 December 2016

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A Bearded Seal Holiday Scene

Bearded Seal (Erignathus barbatus), Family Phocidae
Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, Alaska

Credit & Copyright: Dr. Bruce G. Marcot

Explanation:  This week is the Christmas holiday, and who better to usher in the festivities than an old, white-bearded denizen of the ice-shrouded North Pole?

Well, not quite the North Pole.

And not quite Santa Claus.

This week we highlight a wonderful holiday scene with a photo essay:  a mother bearded seal with pup that we discovered hauled out on a remote ice floe in the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean.  


We landed our helicopter a ways away to not startle the pair, then walked to the edge of our ice floe to observe them, still at a discrete distance.  

    

Happy Holidays to all 
from Ecology Picture of the Week !
   

    

Next week's picture:  Raining Rainbows

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