March 1, 1996
Web posted at: 4:45 p.m. EST
AÑO NUEVO, California (CNN) -- Microcomputers strapped to elephant seals are helping biologists answer what was once a great mystery: What happens to elephant seals after they mate, bear pups and head to sea? (408K QuickTime movie)
The microcomputers are attached to the heads and backs of seals. Through the tiny computers, weather satellites are able to track the animals and then feed that data into computers at the University of California at Santa Cruz, supplying scientists with the animal's behavior at sea.
When seals come back from afar, they shed their skin as well as the instruments.
Until now, elephant seals were thought to live along the Pacific Coast. But the satellite tracking has proven otherwise, helping scientists rewrite textbooks on elephant seals and other marine mammals. (315K QuickTime movie)
In fact, researchers found that the female seals swim across the Pacific Ocean, nearly to Japan; males travel across the Gulf of Alaska where they feed along the continental shelf.
"We had no idea that basically their home is the Pacific Ocean -- anywhere in the Pacific Ocean," said biologist Daniel Costa. (187K AIFF sound or 187K WAV sound)
And researchers are discovering that for the entire nine months at sea, the seals spend most of the time underwater. The elephant seal dives nearly a mile deep. While underwater, the seals slow their heart rate to three beats a minute while holding their breath for up to two hours.
Daniel Crocker, an elephant seal researcher, says scientists might be able to apply the findings to human medical technology. (111K AIFF sound or 111K WAV sound)
Until then, seals will keep on swimming while scientists keep on tracking.
![[Imagemap]](/EARTH/images/9601/navbar.gif){kind=small}
Copyright © 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.