Elephant seals - climate impact, dark intraspecific extinction and more.

I speak to Associate Professor Nic Rawlence, Director of the Otago Palaeogenetics Laboratory in the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago about elephant seals.

He tells me about a recent paper published titled Postglacial Recolonization of the Southern Ocean by Elephant Seals Occurred From Multiple Glacial Refugia.

We discuss climate impact on elephant seals in the past and in the future.

The effect of commercial hunting and traditional harvest.

Dark intraspecific extinction.

We touch on how animal numbers looked in New Zealand when humans arrived, how to save elephant seals, if ChatGPT is any good for DNA work and more.