Grade Level: 1st to 6th grade

Objective
Students will learn the importance of vocalizations and sound recognition by seal and sea lion mothers and pups.

Materials
Black film canisters (even number and at least one for each student)
Objects to put inside the canisters Examples: Paper clips, coins, sand, paper, shells, erasers, staples, wood, matches, marbles etc.
Colored sticker dots (2 colors-enough for every film canister) Example: blue dots = pup and red dots = moms
Recording of a rookery beach or the ocean (optional)

Background
Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walruses) use sound to communicate. Females recognize their pups by sound and smell. Minutes after giving birth, the mother nuzzles her pup to imprint its smell. She vocalizes and the pup vocalizes back. Their unique sounds allow the mother and pup to find one another amongst thousands of other seals or sea lions on the beach. Mother elephant seals never leave their pups but because there are usually many animals on one beach (each breeding male establishes a harem of as many as 50 females), some pups and moms do get separated. By hearing each other's unique sound, they find each other. California sea lion males may have a breeding territory with 40 females. Within a few days of giving birth, a female sea lion will leave her pup on the beach to feed in the ocean. Upon her return she will go back to the place where she left her pup and vocalize. Other pups will return her call; she must pick out the sound of her own pup and confirm by smell that the pup is hers. Groups of pups on the beach are called "pup pods".

Preparation
Fill two film canisters with the same object. Using the circle stickers label one as the mom and the other as the pup. Do this with all the film canisters. Be creative with the objects you put in the canisters, for example mix coins and sand in one pair and paper clips and marbles in another. However, each pair should have a unique sound. You can even leave one pair empty. For younger students, it may be easier to repeat some of the sounds (make four canisters with paper clips and have them as two pairs), making it easier for those students to find their match.

Procedure
1. Have students imagine seals on a crowded rookery beach. Make a list of all the noises they might be hearing (other seals, birds, wind, the ocean). Either play the recording of the ocean sounds now, or do the activity once without the sounds then again with the sounds. Randomly pass out the canisters to the students. Explain that some are pups (blue dots) and some are moms (red dots). Students must now find the sound that matches theirs, by listening to everyone else's sound.

2. Once the mom and pup have found each other they should sit down together. After a set time (5 minutes) some students may not have found their match. With younger students try to help them all find their match.

3. Talk about how hard or easy it was for the students. If you did the activity once with the sounds and once without discuss with the students if the difficulty changed.

4. You be the judge about how much you continue the discussion of the real life situation if mother and pup never locate each other. If the mother never finds her pup (after maybe a day or more searching) she will mate with a dominant male, leave the beach, and come back later in the year. If the pup is still alive and could not find its mother it is now an orphan with little chance for survival. In areas with rehabilitation facilities like The Marine Mammal Center, orphan pups can be rescued, rehabilitated and returned back to the wild. Visit our website at www.tmmc.org. The web site of the Seal Conservation Society has a list of Stranding/rehabilitation facilities in the United States and worldwide.