| These videos were taken Feb 9-11, 2009. Neither parent has gone back in the water to feed since the birth on Jan. 30. They are living entirely on their fat storage. With that there must be enough energy for the mother to supply food for the pup who should be feeding 24x7. If he cannot triple his birth weight before weaning (~23-35 days) he will not survive. according to Corey Bradshaw ( PC year 14) who is now Associate Professor at the Environment Institute School of Earth & Environmental Sciences University of Adelaide, South Australia and the South Australian Research & Development Institute Henley Beach, South Australia .
Our concern is that the young male, who has no competition is making life very difficult for the pup and mother. Normally a colony would have many females and a small number of males that would be intent on breeding in the narrow window of time when the females have to be bred since their gestation is 11 months. The following images and videos illustrate the problem.
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