Marine mammals are traditionally considered to have a poor sense of smell. More recent studies suggest though that olfaction (the sense of smell) may indeed play an important role for social communication, finding food (foraging) and reproductive behavior in many pinnipeds, including fur seals.

There haven't been that many studies assessing olfactory performance in pinnipeds, but the results from these few studies have all supported the notion that pinnipeds may use their sense of smell for foraging. 

I used odorants from two chemical classes; 2-ketones and 1-alcohols. These have all been found in the natural environment of fur seals. They can especially be found in the odor of fish and seafoods, eaten by fur seals. South African fur seals eat a lot of mackerel, sardines, cephalopods and crustaceans. Because of these odorants' presence in the diet of fur seals, it's likely that they are behaviorally relevant for fur seals in foraging and social communication. 

I used four odorants from each chemical class which only differed from each other in carbon chain length (C4-C7). By using odorants that are structurally related it is possible to see if carbon chain length affect the ability of the fur seals to discriminate between the different odorants.

The aims of my study was:

• To assess olfactory discrimination abilities of South African fur seals for odorants belonging to the classes 2-ketones and 1-alcohols.
• To assess a potential correlation between olfactory discrimination performance and carbon chain length.