{"id":21025,"date":"2022-10-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=21025"},"modified":"2022-10-21T12:02:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T10:02:23","slug":"meet-the-scientist-sarah-kienle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/2022\/10\/20\/meet-the-scientist-sarah-kienle\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the scientist: Sarah Kienle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
MEET THE SCIENTIST <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

Sarah Kienle<\/h2>\n\n

Assistant professor of biology at Baylor University, Texas, on the latest leopard seal research <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Sarah prepares for a livestream Q&A with schoolchildren <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

SARAH KIENLE FELL IN LOVE WITH BIOLOGY AS an undergraduate and started working on the ecology and physiology of marine mammals during her PhD. \u201cI run a lab studying top predators because changes in their populations have cascading consequences for entire ecosystems,\u201d says the assistant professor of biology at Baylor University. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cIn this era of widespread, rapid environmental change, it is so important to understand the different adaptations that animals have that allow them to survive,\u201d says Sarah. \u201cWe know so little about marine mammals compared to terrestrial mammal predators.\u201d Her most recent study focused on the leopard seal because they are one of the least studied predators on Earth but are important in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe most exciting finding to me was that female leopard seals are 1.5 times larger than male leopard seals,\u201d she says. \u201cWe don\u2019t know why \u2013 yet. Large female leopard seals seem to be better at defending territories, stealing prey and eating energy-rich prey compared to smaller females and males. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe also found that some females spend up to two weeks hauled out on ice and think this is when they are giving birth and nursing,\u201d says the biologist. \u201cLeopard seals are primarily short shallow divers, but we also recorded the longest and deepest dive for any leopard seal \u2013 25 minutes to 1,256m. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cLeopard seals are challenging to work with because they are solitary animals that rarely haul out in groups, so finding multiple animals is tricky,\u201d explains Sarah. Before an individual is measured and weighed, it must be sedated to reduce stress to the animal. Special permits (NMFS 19439, ACA 2018-016 and NSF 1644256) allowed Sarah and her colleagues to conduct their research. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have enough information to really understand how leopard seals are coping with environmental change,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s encouraging, though, to see so much variability among individuals because species with more variability are better able to adapt to climate change.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Jo <\/strong>Price <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Transmitters (left) were fitted on the heads of leopard seals to track their movements <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Photos: SARAH: RENATO BORRAS-CHAVEZ; LEOPARD SEALS: SARAH KIENLE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assistant professor of biology at Baylor University, Texas, on the latest leopard seal research <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"19","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"19","purple_seq_number":"2","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"2","purple_source_article":"article_19-2.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_19-2.xml","purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"November-2022-19-2","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-19-2","purple_issue_code":"|0000087237||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000087237||","purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.wildlife.497","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"58d61955-0ac4-406c-83f1-ab6f21d86b70","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-20T08:57:50Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"50c8ed21-40d2-4c97-893b-4748a570e9de","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-21T10:02:28Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AUMjtIUDSTJeJO0dIpXDp3g","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\""},"categories":[25],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122.jpg",1625,1133,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122-300x209.jpg",300,209,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122-768x535.jpg",768,535,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122-1024x714.jpg",800,558,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122-1536x1071.jpg",1536,1071,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/e60ac66d-cc03-4c5d-af4a-f8aaa6324122.jpg",1625,1133,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Assistant professor of biology at Baylor University, Texas, on the latest leopard seal research","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21025"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21425,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21025\/revisions\/21425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}