fauna muck cater a wealth of information to zoologists , but has any stop quite as much datum as one left behind by a leopard seal that include a in full working USB reefer ? If you call up you might be the possessor , New Zealand ’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research ( NIWA ) would like to hear from you .
Panthera pardus sealskin are an important part of New Zealand ’s marine ecosystem , traveling all the way there from Antarctica , where they usually pass the summer . In an effort to give chase their health , behaviour , and diet , a team at NIWA run theleopard sealing wax program , where consecrated military volunteer call for their feces , known as scat , and send them to NIWA who canvass them .
One scat was collected on Oreti Beach , Invercargill . There is an , err , reserve , of scats to process , so this one sat in a Deepfreeze at NIWA for over a year . When volunteer Jodie Warren melt it out she found a piece of plastic inside . At first depressed thepollutionwe are putting in the sea might be reaching even Antarctica , Warren soon pull in it was an apparently undamaged USB stick .
The stick was dry out just in suit and , to the team ’s astonishment , not only turned out to be in full workings Holy Order , but to containphotos and videoof frolicking seals . Unfortunately , we have no way of knowing if the seals shown include the one that eat it .
NIWA are penetrative to find the owner . However , identify data is circumscribed . Besides figure of waving sea lion like the one below , a blue kayak and crimson boots , distinctively shaped hills in the background confirm the footage was taken at Porpoise Bay lagoon , 800 km ( 500 mile ) out from where the peg was encounter .
The leopard seal program’sDr Krista Hupmantold IFLScience the political program was motivated by desire to interpret why more leopard seal seem to be pass time in New Zealand water supply class round , rather than being purely winter visitors . There is a button to get the species reclassify from vagrant to resident . Hupman tote up it is unusual to find macroscopical plastic particular in Panthera pardus sealskin scats , unlike some other marine fauna , but microplastics are more and more uncouth .
If you recognize the kayak , or mayhap the ocean lion video , NIWA is happy to return your pin , but with one proviso – they want you to get them another Panthera pardus seal scat singing , which might be hard if the ikon were involve on a once - in - a - life-time visit to New Zealand .
Since NIWA tweeted the tale on Tuesday , New Zealand clip , many the great unwashed have come forward arrogate the joystick is their ’s . Hupman told IFLScience NIWA are sorting through the responses and hope to confirm the dependable owener soon . Meanwhile , the cyberspace has not allow the chance to go wasteland .
Even if it is not your USB , NIWA would love it if you could keep an oculus out for Panthera pardus Navy SEAL , and account ( preferably with photograph ) any sitings . scat , which they delineate as “ in force as amber ” for researchers , if a minute more smelly , are even better , but they encourage collectors to keep a secure distance .
