Some of the seals are centuries old, preserved by the dry Antarctica air. <\/p>
On\u00a0Antarctica\u2019s\u00a0Lake\u00a0Bonney,\u00a0plunked\u00a0on\u00a0top\u00a0of\u00a0a\u00a0layer\u00a0of\u00a0ice,\u00a0there\u00a0lies\u00a0a long-dead seal.<\/strong><\/p> This\u00a0seal\u00a0is\u00a0many\u00a0miles\u00a0from\u00a0the\u00a0coast,\u00a0where\u00a0his\u00a0living relatives are diving, hunting and sliding around. His yellowing body is on its back, flippers in the air, as if to say, \u201cWhy did I come here again?\u201d\u00a0<\/p> Most non-microscopic creatures don\u2019t enter the McMurdo Dry Valleys \u2013 after all,\u00a0there\u00a0isn\u2019t much for them here.<\/p> But\u00a0since the\u00a0early\u00a020th\u00a0century,\u00a0human\u00a0visitors\u00a0to the valleys have repeatedly stumbled across the mummified carcasses of seals, often very far from the shores they\u2019re meant to frequent.<\/p> It\u2019s unclear where these lonely pinnipeds were scooting off to, or why. One member of the Robert Scott\u2019s 1901 Discovery expedition,\u00a0Edward\u00a0Wilson,\u00a0reported\u00a0the remains\u00a0of \u201cold seals\u201d on the tops of high glaciers and wrote that they must be retiring there to\u00a0die in peace.<\/p> Newer observations suggest that most of the mummified seals are young. Currently,\u00a0the leading theory is that they got disoriented during snowstorms and wandered into\u00a0the desert instead of back to shore.\u00a0<\/p> A straight line of tracks found behind one mummy\u00a0suggests\u00a0a\u00a0seal\u00a0hell-bent on wherever she thought\u00a0she\u00a0was\u00a0going \u2013 an idea\u00a0bolstered\u00a0by stories of two Antarctic teams who have seen seals headed into the McMurdo Dry\u00a0Valleys\u00a0and\u00a0tried\u00a0in\u00a0vain\u00a0to\u00a0point\u00a0them back\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0right\u00a0direction.<\/p> After the seals die, the dry climate\u00a0preserves their bodies until the wind\u00a0disintegrates them. During a recent study, researchers found and examined\u00a0hundreds of mummified seals in the Dry\u00a0Valleys and found that some had been there for centuries \u2013 monuments to their\u00a0own\u00a0mistakes.<\/p> How can you see them? There\u00a0is\u00a0a mummified seal outside Discovery Hut<\/a> in\u00a0McMurdo Sound. For others, find someone who has seen one and ask them where to go.<\/p> This article is excerpted from\u00a0Atlas Obscura: Wild Life:\u00a0An Explorer\u2019s Guide to the World\u2019s Living Wonders<\/em>\u00a0by Joshua Foer & Cara Giaimo. Workman Publishing, 2024.<\/p> Main image: A\u00a0mummified\u00a0seal\u00a0can\u00a0weather\u00a0the\u00a0centuries. Atlas Obscura<\/em><\/p> More wild stories form around the world<\/strong><\/p> Some of the seals are centuries old, preserved by the dry Antarctica air. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":42205,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies.jpg",1875,1250,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/10\/mummified-seals-are-appearing-in-antarcticas-ice-deserts-explorers-just-found-tracks-leading-to-one-of-the-bodies.jpg",1875,1250,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":"Some of the seals are centuries old, preserved by the dry Antarctica air.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/42204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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