Labels: Erin, isaac, Northern Fur Seal

Did you know that to stay healthy, a lot of people are doing some of the same behaviors that our fur seals do? That's right. Stop in to any local yoga studio and you will see people doing poses that look a lot like what Cordova and Ursula do on a daily basis.

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Labels: Erin, Northern Fur Seal, yoga

Male fur seals make a sound referred to as a "whicker." It is difficult to describe and can vary between a breathy, clicking sound to more distinct clicks. Males tend to whicker when defending territory or when courting female fur seals during breeding season.

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Labels: Baranov, behavior, whickering

Labels: JD, Northern Fur Seal, Rochelle

If you're a marine mammal fan, today is a good day to pick up The Boston Globe. The Aquarium's own Jenny Montague is featured in the G-Force interview section. She's already written about how she got her start training marine mammals for this blog, but this interview has some new insights, such as who's Jenny's favorite seal to work with right now and a sneak preview of Jenny's upcoming Aquarium lecture. It's free and open to the public, but you better register here before it fills up!

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Labels: Boston Globe, Jenny, lecture, News

Baranov is back! Last time he was at the Aquarium, he enjoyed doing his impression of a fur seal monorail on the previous exhibit's bridge. Now he's back and he has a much larger, brand new space to explore in the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center.


Baranov arriving at the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center (left) and in his previous home at the Mystic Aquarium (right).

So how do you transport a Northern fur seal that weighs between 400 and 500 pounds? A simple dolly isn't enough... the team used a forklift. Here's a photo slide show of the move. Press play to get it started!

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Labels: Baranov, New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center, Northern Fur Seal, transport

Labels: Boston Globe, ice blocks, ice toy, Jenny, Ursula

It has been a while since our seal of the week blog. The arrival of our fur seals and the opening of the New Balance Foundation Marine Mammal Center has certainly kept us busy. So, sorry for the delay and on we go with our Seal Of The Week! This week we are going to highlight Reggae.

Reggae is a male Atlantic harbor seal born at the New England Aquarium on May 30, 1993. He is the son of Smoke and the brother of Amelia. Just like Smoke, Reggae has no spots on his belly. He also happens to be the largest of our seals. His maximum weight is 230 lbs!

Reggae knows a lot of different behaviors. One of the newest is a high five that Lindsay posted last week. Check it out! He also recently had an x-ray done of his teeth. Through training, Reggae learned to hold a small x-ray plate in his mouth while on his back. He had to hold completely still with the hand held x-ray machine against his chin. Stay tuned for a video blog showing how great Reggae was during the procedure.

In addition to doing x-rays of his teeth, we also brush Reggae's teeth on a regular basis. Unlike humans, seals have no molars for chewing. Reggae uses his sharp teeth to grip onto the fish that we feed him and then he swallows it down whole. His birthday blog shows what that looks like. We want to make sure that those teeth stay in tip top shape. Here is a picture of Reggae having his teeth brushed.

We are always working on new things with Reggae so every session is different. We feed Reggae and his exhibit mates four times a day so come check it out!

~Patty

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Labels: Harbor Seals, Reggae, seal of the week

This was my first behavior I trained with Reggae from start to finish. I actually trained it twice; the first time I did it, I didn't notice how much his flipper was curling in when he hit my hand-that hurts! So I backed up a few steps and fixed that flipper flat.

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Labels: high five, Lindsay, Reggae, training

This is a really cool video of Isaac, our 9-year-old male Northern fur seal, jug handling. Check out Patty's previous post here, for information on why they hang around in this neat position. It's hard to tell where each flipper is when he is already in position, but keep watching as he unfolds and folds his flippers back into place.

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Labels: isaac, jug handling, Lindsay