By: Lauren Wu

On August 7, 2024, in Australia, cameras on sea lions helped scientists from where? learn more about the Indian Ocean, because when the sea lions swim, the cameras capture the things in the sea lions’ view. The scientists use cameras on sea lions instead of robots because using robots costs a lot of money.

People don’t know much about the ocean. Nathan Angelakis, a Ph.D. student at the South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences) and the University of Adelaide joined some other colleagues to put cameras on eight sea lions for research. Why did they decide to do this?

To put the camera on, Nathan Angelakis and his team gave the sea lions a slight sedative, with approval from marine conservation authorities, so the sea lions would be sleepy. Once the sedative had made the sea lions sleepy, Angelakis and his colleagues glued pieces of wetsuit material to the sea lion’s fur, then attached a camera as well as devices to track the sea lion’s location and speed.

Once the sea lions awoke from the sedative, they headed for the back toward the Indian Ocean from the sand. A few days later, they returned to the shore. Angelakis and the other researchers took the cameras and devices from the wetsuit material but left the wetsuit material on, since it would fall off with the sea lion’s fur a few days later.

Then the researchers gathered around their laptop to see the footage the sea lions had gathered. According to The New York Times, Angelakis said perhaps the most thrilling scene was captured by Daphne. “She was taking her pup out to sea, and that’s the first direct evidence that we’ve collected of Australian sea lion mothers teaching or passing on their foraging skills to their pups,” Angelakis said. This was important because it was the first recorded footage of an Australian sea lion teaching its pup to hunt.

In conclusion, putting cameras on sea lions could lead to less expensive ways to explore the ocean floor. Scientists could use the footage to discover more about other sea animals, not just sea lions. This could mean researchers can learn more about sea animals’ behavior and better ways to protect them.

Link- https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2015/04/secrets-of-the-australian-sea-lion/