How do seals see the world? Concordia working with zoo on answer

Researchers are teaching seals at the Edmonton Valley Zoo to use touchscreens to learn how seals process visual information.

Concordia University of Edmonton and Edmonton Valley Zoo have paired up to study how seals see the world.

Specifically, Concordia assistant professor Jenna Congdon, who researches comparative cognition in multiple species, is trying to determine seals’ local-global bias: whether they see elements of a stimulus individually or as the whole.

“It gives us an insight into, essentially, how they see the world (and) how they process information. It can give us insights into how they live their lives in the wild: how do they hunt and process information underwater?” she explained to CTV News Edmonton during an information-gathering session on Tuesday.

The sessions involve a big touch screen and positive reinforcement like pieces of herring and capelin.

The seals who want to participate have their nose dried, and then are asked to choose the correct image on screen.

Although the research is in the early stages, Congdon’s preliminary data suggests the zoo’s northern fur seals – identifiable by their fur and ears – have a global preference, like humans.

“The question really isn’t about intelligence. It’s instead looking at their cognitive abilities, and how those might differ based on the kinds of ecological – so environmental pressures – that they have,” Congdon said.

She is also studying Edmonton’s harbor seals, sometimes called true seals.

She said the research will increase humans’ understanding of pinnipeds, as well as the zoo’s staff of the animals in their care.

Plus, it’s a fun activity and exercise for them, according to zookeeper Joelle Epp.

“There’s some days they don’t want to and that’s fine, but I think that the tell is that if one of them doesn’t get to participate that day, they get a little bit jealous of the other one. That tells me that they really want to be involved and they don’t like being left out,” she said.

Congdon previously conducted this kind of research with the zoo’s emus and hopes to also study the North American river otter.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell