Molly McCormley at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA—Undergraduate interns can be some of the most fascinating biological creatures to ever encounter.  While they tend not to be very shy, their lives are so complicated, that it’s hard to keep up with one long enough to really understand what is going on in their mind! Fortunately for us, we were able to corner one long enough to get an up close and personal look into their lives.

Our subject, Ashley Pearson, on her way out the door with her breakfast in hand.  Photo:Ashley Pearson

Apparently, college students, though prone to semi-coma like sleeping, seem to wake up very early in the morning.  TOPP students (or interns), like the one we are tracking, wake up when the sun hasn’t even come out yet. It was only 5 am, as our student got ready to go out to Año Nuevo State Reserve.  She assists UCSC Costa Lab graduate students with their projects on elephant seals.  She will attain valuable experience from volunteering with them because they can show her the ropes and allow her to figure out if this is the right career path for her.

Even though she had just woken up, our subject was already in a hurry and had dressed, brushed her teeth, and ate breakfast (though a bannana doesn’t really count as breakfast), in a matter of minutes.  They are quick creatures!  Though of course her real speed skills were truly shinning during a period 3 minutes when having repeatedly forgot a number of miscellaneous items, ran from her car and her house about 5 times.  Such skill!  Fortunately, she was still able to get to the UCSC Long Marine Lab at 5:30am in order to meet the rest of her crew, load gear (and themselves) into a large white truck, and head out to Año Nuevo State Reserve.

The undergraduate at this time is in the back seat, usually in the middle. After a 20 minute long ride listening to graduate students moan about old hiking boots, recite seals they plan to deploy on by memory (this maybe an unspoken competition…), or indulge in random too-sciency-for-most inside jokes, the intern will usually stare out the window, or take a nap.
Ashley helping out Melinda Fowler and Cory Champagne recover Jon Sealwart's tags. Photo: Melinda Fowler

Once at the beach, the intern mimics similar behavior to a pack mule, or donkey. Carrying as much gear as intern-ly possible out to the beach. On the beach, the intern begins to show behavior of a shadow, mimicking the grad students who make working with elephant seals look so easy.  First the intern helped to resight, or look for previously tagged elephant seals and write down their condition for future reference.  Then she helped the grad students preformed a procedure on a female elephant seal in which they put tags on her head and back and took samples of her blood and fur. By the time they finished with the procedure and the hours of resights, the intern was so tired that she could barley carry the gear back to the car (which somehow doubled).  In the car ride home, the intern could hardly keep her eyes open, often accidentally resting her head on whoever’s shoulder was nearby.  However, her work was not done yet, for when they got back to the lab they had to process the blood samples that they got from the elephant seal.  By the time she was done she seemed ready to eat a hippopotamus.
Ashley at the top of the sand dune doing a behavior studyfor her senior thesis on mother and pup behavior. Photo: Nicole Marie Teutschel

As demonstrated by our interns breakfast, college students have the remarkable ability to be able to store little food in their stomach for long periods of time throughout the day, until they finally break down and eat a whole cafeteria for dinner.   This can be shown through the progression of snacks that our subject consumed throughout the rest of her day, after she got back from the field around 12pm, consisting of cereal bars, crackers, yogurt, and fruit, but never in enough quantities for her to truly feel satisfied.  As our subject demonstrates, snacks are normally eaten between classes or in her case, while working at Long Marine Lab.  Though after looking at her field hands, she wisely chose to wash them before consuming any goodies.  She later devoured ¾ of a pizza that she hand made that night.  This phenomenon may have come about because of the intensely busy schedules that these students have!
Ashely working very hard, and snacking away, at the UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab. Photo: Molly McCormley

An E Seal Intern will not only go out into the field, but will also help with tasks around the lab, including blood work, data entry, prepping gear, restocking, prepping tags, and updating breeding charts. In between her commitments, our subject even finds time to say hi to friends, mind you it was only a wave to a friend on the sidewalk as she flew by in her car, but it’s the thought that counts! So from leaving her house at 5 in the morning, fieldwork, lab work, class, and even work work, our subject didn’t get back to her house until 8 that night (which coincidentally is when she devoured her pizza…yum).
Ashley happily eating her hand made pizza! What talent! Photo: Ashley Pearson

Even though she was finally home, and still stinky from the field, (she was mistaken for a E seal all day), our subject yet again proves her determination to do well and did homework and studied for a good 3 hours with her roommate for company.  Then, in a fit of desperation, she turned on the T.V. for some down time. Around 1 am, she thought about a shower, then fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 5 am to start another wonderful day!
Our sleeping subject, dreaming of her exciting days to come as an E seal intern! Photo: Ashley Pearson

Stay tuned for more Day in the Life blogs! If you’d like to learn more check out the E Seal species page and the Elephant Seal Homecoming Days page!