Apparent twin pups of the Weddell seal Leptonychotes weddellii (Carnivora: Phocidae) near Mawson, Antarctica.

Abstract

PHOCID seals give birth annually, generally to a single pup. Twins have been reported occasionally, either from observations made in utero or from observations of live pups in the field. Examples of the former are reports of two embryos in a Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii (Bertram 1940) and of twin foetuses of a southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina (Bryden 1966). Observations of two pups suckling one adult female have been reported for L. weddellii (e.g., Gelatt et al. 2001). For M. leonina, Carrick et al. (1962) reported an adult female that expelled two placentae and gave birth to a pup while another newborn pup was nuzzling the female. The occurrence of twin pups in several pinniped species is reviewed by Spotte (1982). Here we use the expression 'apparent twins' to refer to reports of twin L. weddellii pups that are based solely on field observations of two pups with the same adult female on several occasions.