#AntarcticLog is a series of comics by Karen Romano Young. You can find the originals here. 

Enough with the polar whales already. Here’s the animal that led me into creating science comics in the first place.

The polar seals are another force to be reckoned with as a comic creator.  No, I’m not about to embark on a series of comics about individual species of polar seals, but I did want to check in with a few seal stories so far. Seals have got both the Antarctic and Arctic pretty well figured out in terms of adaptations. Their blubber, fur, swimming and diving ability, and eating habits– not to mention their chill both in terms of attitude and energy conservation (i.e. lying around doing nothing) — equips them to deal with these extreme environments.

What’s more, seals are a good source of information about their environments.  Not just in the usual way — analyzing their diet, behavior, population size and health, but also by partnering with humans to gather data about places that’s easy for the seals to reach, but potentially difficult, dangerous, and expensive for people.

–Karen Romano Young is a writer, artist, deep-sea diver, and polar explorer. Follow her on Twitter & Instagram.