{"id":2809,"date":"2023-12-04T17:25:09","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T17:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/?p=2809"},"modified":"2024-09-04T21:07:07","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T21:07:07","slug":"a-seal-through-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebling.library.wisc.edu\/corpus-callosum\/a-seal-through-time\/","title":{"rendered":"A Seal through Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Temte, MD, PhD<\/em>
\nSchool of Medicine and Public Health<\/em>
\n2023<\/em>
\nEssay<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We arrived in Madison the same fall; both relocating from the Pacific Northwest.\u00a0 It was 1983.\u00a0 I was moving out of a marine mammal graduate program at Oregon State University to attend Medical School at the University of Wisconsin; she was on loan from the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.\u00a0 I arrived in mid-August and she in early October.<\/p>\n

Our paths had crossed once before.\u00a0 I had arranged to draw blood from the harbor seals at Point Defiance as part of my research on reproductive timing of pinnipeds.\u00a0 She would have been there when we drained the pool and drew samples from the seals.<\/p>\n

The harbor seals at Henry Vilas Zoo were a comfort to me during the early uncertainties of medical school.\u00a0 Their serene loops in the nicely shaded waters of the seal enclosure were familiar from my days in the field; wild seals often cruise with their bellies to the sky; predators come from below, never above.\u00a0 I quickly noted the yellow flipper tags on one seal, the blue on another.\u00a0 They were likely placed by an acquaintance of mine from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.\u00a0 Yellowtag, as she was known then, had been recovered as an abandoned pup on the Washington Coast in 1970, along with Boston Blackie\u2014the seal with blue flipper tags.\u00a0 Many trips were made to the zoo in my first year in Madison, as I lived only a few blocks away.<\/p>\n

I received an MD\/PhD scholarship during my second year of medical school and drifted from medicine for a time.\u00a0 My research continued on reproductive timing of seals and sea lions; but my base of operations changed from Oregon State University to the Department of Zoology at the UW.\u00a0 Yellowtag became a subject in one of my papers on precision and heritability of birth timing in 1991, and again in a 1994 paper on photoperiod control of birth timing in harbor seals.<\/p>\n

Over the years, the locust-tree shaded seal pool was a refuge from demands of career and medical practice.\u00a0 My wife served as a zoo education volunteer for years; our kids grew up with frequent visits to see the seals and the other denizens of Henry Vilas Zoo.\u00a0 My oldest daughter was enough of a fixture in her early years that she earned the name \u201cZoo Baby.\u201d\u00a0 During this time, my guilty pleasure was to sneak over from my nearby departmental office to indulge in a chili dog and a bag of chips for lunch; an impromptu picnic on one of the benches near the seal enclosure.<\/p>\n

Yellowtag became Betty; she continued to loop gracefully through the water.\u00a0 The years passed by as we both aged.\u00a0 Then, on May 16, 2012, at the advanced age of 42, Betty gave birth to Lucille, becoming the oldest known harbor seal to have a pup (they rarely live past 12 years in the wild).\u00a0 Three years later, Betty\u2014by then, the oldest of her kind in the world\u2014moved to new surroundings in the recently completed Arctic Passage exhibit, where she preferred the quietness of an interior salt-water tank to the bright, exposed outside pool.\u00a0 But, on occasion she still graced those waters.\u00a0 I, eleven years her senior, continued to drop by on from time to time and, if lucky, caught those graceful loops and wandered back across the years.<\/p>\n

Betty died on July 15, 2019, in her fiftieth year, far surpassing the life expectancy of harbor seals, wild or captive.\u00a0 Through the years, she served as a bridge not only to my past, but to the hope of the future.\u00a0 I often include her photo as I teach about public health\u2014a testament to what clean water, a dependable food supply, the lack of predation and parasites, and\u2014perhaps\u2014a little veterinary care can do.\u00a0\u00a0 Godspeed my friend\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Scientific papers featuring Yellowtag\/Betty:<\/p>\n

Precise birth timing in captive harbor seals (Phoca<\/u> vitulina<\/u><\/em>) and California sea lions (Zalophus<\/u> californianus<\/u><\/em>).\u00a0 Marine Mammal Science. 1991, 7(2):145-156.<\/p>\n

Photoperiod control of birth timing in the harbor seal (Phoca<\/u> vitulina<\/u><\/em>).\u00a0 \u00a0Journal of Zoology (London). 1994, 233(3):369-384.<\/p>\n

Phenomenal advanced age of pupping in a captive Pacific harbor seal (Phoca<\/u> vitulina<\/u> richardsi<\/u><\/em>).\u00a0 Zoo Biology.\u00a0 2015, 34(6):522-524.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Temte, MD, PhD School of Medicine and Public Health 2023 Essay   We arrived in Madison the same fall; both relocating from the Pacific Northwest.\u00a0 It was 1983.\u00a0 I was moving out of a marine mammal graduate program at Oregon State University to attend Medical School at the University of Wisconsin; she was on… <\/p>\n

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