Search Elephant Seal Sightings by Criteria

This search interface will return seal sightings that match the given criteria.

Tag, Brand or Seal Number:

Enter the tag, brand or seal number. If this field is not empty the returned sightings must have either a tag or brand record that matches the value entered, or if the seal_id is given the sightings will be returned for that seal.

Seal Id values will be numeric, for example 20 or 2000 are valid seal IDs.

Brands are generally of the form: Letter then 3 numbers. For example T777 or B555. The letter corresponds to the year in which the seal was branded.

Tags are ganerally of the form : Letter then 4 numbers. Some of the earlier Tags contain letters instead of numbers.

A list of the brands and tags used each year can be found here

Question marks can be used for unknown values. For example ?555 will return any sightings of seals that have a brand of something followed by '555'.

Tag Status:

Selecting the New option here will return sightings of new tags only. Selecting the Resight option here sightings of tag resights only.
Selecting the Don't Care option will return sightings of both new tags and resightings of tags.

Brand Status:

Selecting the New option here will return sightings of new brands only. Selecting the Resight option here sightings of brand resights only.
Selecting the Don't Care option will return sightings of both new brands and resightings of brands.

Sighting Location:

You can select more than one location in the menu. You can select continuous group by holding down the 'Shift' key and clicking on the first and last location. You can select a non-continuous group by holding down the 'Ctrl" key and clicking on each location of interest.

If the user selects the 'All Selected" option here sightings at all locations will be returned. If one location is selected then only sightings at that location will be returned.
If more than one location is selected sightings from any of those locations will be returned.

Year of Birth:

If the user selects the 'All Selected" option here sightings of all seals will be returned regardless of year of birth. If one year is selected then only sightings of seals born in that year will be returned.
If more than one year is selected sightings of any seals borns in any of the selected years will be returned.

Master Sex:

Selecting the 'Male' option here will return sightings of seals with a master sex of male. Selecting the 'Female' option here sightings of seals with a master sex of female.
Selecting the 'Unknown' option will return sightings of seals with an unknown master sex. Selecting the Don't Care option will return sightings of seals regardless of their master sex.

Sex on Sighting:

Male - Selecting the 'Male' option here will return sightings where the sex on sighting was male. Female - Selecting the 'Female' option here sightings wehre the sex on sighting was female.
Unkown - Selecting the 'Unknown' option will return sightings where the sex on sighting was unknown. Don't Care - Selecting the Don't Care option will return sightings of regardless of the sex on sighting value recorded.

Harem Position:

If the user selects the 'All Selected" option here sightings of all seals will be returned regardless of the seals harem position. If one position is selected then only sightings of seals in that harem position will be returned.
If more than one position is selected sightings of any seals in any of the selected harem positions are returned.

Lactation Period:

Known - If this is selected only seals that have a lactation period that can be calculated are displayed.
The seal must have a defined birth date and wean date. The lactation period is the difference in days between the wean date and the birth date.

Unknow - If this is selected only seals that do not have a lactation period that can be calculated are displayed.
The seal lactaion period cannot be calculated as either the birth date or the wean date are undefined.

Don't Care - Valid or non valid lactation period is not taken into account when selecting the seal sightings to display.

Weight:

First Value: If a start date is entered then sightings with a recorded weight of greater than or equal to the specified value will be returned

End Value: If an end date is entered then sightings with a recorded weight of less than or equal to this date will be returned.

Length:

First Value: If a minimum value is entered then sightings with a recorded length of greater than or equal to this date will be returned.

End Value: If an end date is entered then sightings with a recorded length of less than or equal to this date will be returned.

Cow Seal Tag, Brand or Seal NumberID:

If this value is entered then sightings of seals that have a cow with the given Seal Tag, Brand or Number are returned. Note not all the sightings of these seals are returned, only the sighting where the observer recorded the seal id.

Has Had Pup:

Yes - If this option is selected then sightings of seals that have had a pup are returned.
No - If this option is selected then sightings of seals that have not had a pup are returned.
Don't Care - If this option is selected then sightings are selected regardless of wheather the seal has pupped.

Cow Size:

If the user selects the 'All Selected" option here sightings of all seals will be returned regardless of the cow size. If one cow size value is selected then only sightings of seals with a cow of the selected size are returned.
If more than one cow size is selected sightings of any seals with a cow of any of the selected cow size are returned.

Pup Weight

This option is used to find sightings of seals that have had pups within a specific weight range.
If the first value is specified then sightings of seals that have had pups with a weight of greater than this value are returned.
If the second value is specified then sightings of seals that have had pups with a weight of less than this value are returned.

Flipper Measured

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where the flipper length was measured are returned.
No - If this is selected only sightings where the flipper length was not measured are returned.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather the flipper length was measured.

Back Fat Measured

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where the back fat was measured are returned.
No - If this is selected only sightings where the back fat was not measured are returned.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather the back fat was measured.

Body Water Measured

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where the body water was measured are returned.
No - If this is selected only sightings where the body water was not measured are returned.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather the body water was measured.

TDR Attached

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where a TDR was attached are returned
No - If this is selected only sightings where the a TDR was not attached are returned.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather a TDR was attached

TDR Attached

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where a TDR was attached are returned
No - If this is selected only sightings where the a TDR was not attached are returned.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather a TDR was attached

Was Lavaged

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where the seal was lavaged are returned.
No - If this is selected only sightings where the a TDR was not lavaged are returned.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather the seal was lavaged are returned.

Blood Sample Taken

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where a blood sample was taken of the seal.
No - If this is selected only sightings where a blood sample of the seal was not taken.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather a blood sample was taken.

Whiskers Taken

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where a whisker was taken from seal.
No - If this is selected only sightings where a whisker was not taken from the seal.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather a whisker was taken from the seal.

Biopsy Taken

Yes - If this is selected only sightings where a biopsy was taken of the seal.
No - If this is selected only sightings where a biopsy of the seal was not taken.
Don't Care - Sightings are returned regardless of wheather a biopsy was taken

Moult Status

If the user selects the 'All Selected" option here sightings of all seals will be returned regardless of the moult status. If one moult status is selected then only sightings of seals with a moult status of the selected status are returned.
If more than one moult status is selected sightings of any seals with a moult status of any of the selected moult status values are returned.

Teeth Status

If the user selects the 'All Selected" option here sightings of all seals will be returned regardless of the teeth status. If one teeth status is selected then only sightings of seals with a teeth status of the selected status are returned.
If more than one teeth status is selected sightings of any seals with a teeth status of any of the selected teeth status values are returned.

Display

Select all the fields that you wish displayed in the search results by ticking the box associated with that field.

Fields selected will result in a column being displayed for that attribute in the search results. Some fields have been pre-selected by default, but they may be de-selected (and thus not shown) if you do not wish to see the attribute in your results. Any combination of fields may be selected.

Order

You may change the sort order according your preference.
The default values for the first order field is "Date Observed" "Descending". That is the results will be returned in order by date with the most recent date first down to the most remote observation date.

Descending will list the largest value first and the smallest value list(LARGE...small = descending).
Ascending will list the smallest value first and the greatest value last(small...LARGE = Ascending).

For Example, if you were to choose "Weight" and "Ascending" your results will list all sightings with the sighting of the lightest animal listed first and the sighting for the heaviest animal last.

Up to three sort orders may be used. The first field will take priority over the second and so forth. For example, if weight is selected as the first order field, and length is selected as the second order field, then all of the sightings will be sorted by weight first and then by length - sightings with the same weight will be in order of the length (which can be either Descending or Ascending).

Records to Return:

This option is only applicable if the user enters a Tag or Brand in the first input field. If a seal is is entered or the field is left empty then this value is ignored.

Show only records with the given Brand or Tag:
If this option is selected then only the sightings where the observer recorded the given brand or tag are returned. This will not return all sightings of the seal with the gievn brand or tag.

Show all sightings of the seal with the given Brand or Tag:
If this option is selected all sightings of the seal with the given brand or tag will be returned. All the sightings are returned regardless of wheather the given brand or tag is sighted on that day.

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