RK36
This does not appear to be RK36. He doesn't have RK36's line scar
behind the right front flipper. Diane Terai also points out he's
missing RK36's cookie cutter scar on his dorsal. On one of Carola's
photos, the lettering on the tag is bright white instead of faded and
the two sides of the tag are joined differently than the 4DJ tag RK36
sports (compare to photos taken Wednesday 12/23/2015 of RK36's severely
faded 4DJ tag). Before I left, I noticed on one of Carola's closeup
belly shots that there was a large rectangular area where the fur was a
slightly lighter color than the rest of his fur. This reminded me of
Benny's belly shave prior to surgery. The seal also had a crescent
shaped scar on his left chest and a right-angled notch (almost square)
on the left rear flipper.
Unknown
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1 comment:
The difficulty in the RK36 ID stems from two factors. Firstly, he has just finished his molt. The marks that are routinely used to ID him may be difficult to see because of the shiny new coat. By the same token some things might be seen on a new coat , just filling in, that might not be seen on his older coat. Secondly, the tag issue appears to require a little tag 101. RK36 has a single tag on his RHF. There are 2 sides to every tag. One, the ventral side, is rounded at the end. The dorsal side is squared off at the end. This is done to facilitate putting the tag on. The rounded end is put through the punched hole when tagging. There is duplicate lettering on each side of the tag. The RK36 tag is the perfect example of what often happens. The ventral (rounded) side is worn and the lettering without color and difficult to see. The dorsal (squared) side is bright and readable, with white letters. Lastly, in two of Tony's shots, the ones where he is doing a hind flipper flex, you will note the notch at the end of one of the "big toes" of his LHF. This is one of the many markers used to ID RK36. I've compared them with tons of my RK36 ID shots, and I say again, this appears to be RK36. DB
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