With Winter abating and Spring just around the corner, the ANHS is delighted to welcome everyone to their next meeting in person on
Tuesday 4th March, at 7:30pm at the Ormidale Sports Pavilion, Brodick
The Life of Seals by Malcolm Kennedy
‘Seals are astonishing animals. I will summarise their evolution and their remarkable diversity as they colonised the world’s oceans and even became trapped in freshwater lakes. They have evolved remarkable physiologies and behaviours to survive in extreme environments and be able to dive (and even sleep!) at remarkable depths. I will mention the lifestyles of, and differences between, our local seals, grey and harbour seals, and then select a couple of examples of seal species from distant oceans that illustrate just how diverse seals are, from elephant seals to crabeaters. With luck I’ll be able to show some videos of male elephant seals controlling their harem females in case they stray! I will finish with mention of how I became interested in seals – that came through work on a quite different group of animals – giant pandas!’
Malcolm was originally trained as a zoologist at Glasgow University where he went on to do a PhD on parasite immunology before moving to London to work as an immunologist at the National Institute of Medical Research. He went on to work on parasites of animals and humans before branching out to research on a wide range of topics including a protein involved in human disease conditions and then research on the foam nests produced by tropical frogs, how horses feed their early embryos, and the differences between the milks of giant pandas and seals. He is now (mostly) retired and spends time between Arran and Glasgow, recently having enthusiastically joined the 9.30 in the morning dookers in Whiting Bay.
Hope to see you there!
Featured image credit: Symmol on Unsplash