Researcher misses opportunity to perform necropsy on dead leopard seal
Wednesday, 22 December 2021
A Kaikoura-based researcher is disappointed she won’t be able to do a necropsy on the leopard seal found dead and later decapitated at Monkey Island in western Southland.
Krista van der Linde has researched leopard seals since 2015 and holds a Department of Conservation permit to perform necropsies on them.
When told of the dead leopard seal at Monkey Island last week van der Linde wanted to collect it and put it into a cool store in readiness for a necropsy. She had arranged for a team of people to move the seal.
However, because van der Linde wouldn’t be there to transport it and DOC didn’t have sufficient staff to move the seal, her request was denied.
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DOC senior biodiversity ranger Ros Cole said, with van der Linde being the permit holder she had to be at Monkey Island when the seal was moved.
‘’We didn’t have enough staff to collect it on her behalf.”
DOC in consultation with the Ōraka Aparima Rūnaka decided to leave the seal at the beach to naturally decompose.
Several days after being discovered, the seal’s head had been cut off and taken away.
The head has not been found. DOC has appealed to the public for information on the decapitated seal.
“It’s a real shame it [the seal’s complete body] couldn’t have been retrieved for research, and now it’s been decapitated,” van der Linde said.
“What we’re trying to do is build a tissue, bone and organ archive for these animals.”
The researcher was not sure what the reason would have been for a person to cut the seal’s head off.
“Some people like to take a jaw bone or skull … the teeth could make a necklace.”
Meanwhile, van der Linde has a leopard seal in an Invercargill cool store after it was found dead at Oreti Beach in September. It will be taken to Christchurch in February for a necropsy.