Autumnwatch 2020 episode 5: Autumnwatch returns for a second week. Gillian reveals the surprising wildlife to be found amongst the chimney stacks and industrial ponds of South Yorkshire, Chris and Megan are live in the New Forest reporting on the fox and badger families.
Michaela catches up on the latest dramatic developments among the seal breeding colony on the Isle of May, and Iolo tries to track down a wild parrot-like bird in a secret location in west Wales.
BBC’s popular wildlife programme records the changes in nature across four days in autumn, using a network of cameras to track the action in real time, including never-filmed-before behaviour, as animals prepare for their toughest time of the year. Presenters anchor `Autumnwatch’ from a different base each year, and camera teams are spread throughout the UK, showcasing the beauty of iconic wild places and revealing new and surprising wildlife stories as they happen.
Autumnwatch 2020 episode 5
Pinniped
Pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, are a widely distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic marine mammals. They comprise the extant families Odobenidae (whose only living member is the walrus), Otariidae (the eared seals: sea lions and fur seals), and Phocidae (the earless seals, or true seals). There are 33 extant species of pinnipeds, and more than 50 extinct species have been described from fossils. While seals were historically thought to have descended from two ancestral lines, molecular evidence supports them as a monophyletic lineage (descended from one ancestral line).
Pinnipeds belong to the order Carnivora and their closest living relatives are bears and the superfamily of musteloids (weasels, raccoons, skunks, and red pandas), having diverged about 50 million years ago.
Seals range in size from the 1 m (3 ft 3 in) and 45 kg (99 lb) Baikal seal to the 5 m (16 ft) and 3,200 kg (7,100 lb) southern elephant seal male, which is also the largest member of the order Carnivora. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism. They have streamlined bodies and four limbs that are modified into flippers. Though not as fast in the water as dolphins, seals are more flexible and agile. Otariids use their front limbs primarily to propel themselves through the water, while phocids and walruses use their hind limbs.
Otariids and walruses have hind limbs that can be pulled under the body and used as legs on land. By comparison, terrestrial locomotion by phocids is more cumbersome. Otariids have visible external ears, while phocids and walruses lack these. Pinnipeds have well-developed senses—their eyesight and hearing are adapted for both air and water, and they have an advanced tactile system in their whiskers or vibrissae. Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. They have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water, and, other than the walrus, all species are covered in fur.
