Marine mammals are traditionally considered to have a poorly developed sense of smell. Pinnipedia, the mammalian sub-order comprising aquatic carnivores such as fur seals and sea lions, are therefore believed to be microsmatic (having a poor sense of smell). This belief is mainly based on an interpretation of neuroanatomical and genetic evidence, such as a reduced size of the olfactory bulbs and a low number of functional olfactory genes. However, an increasing number of behavioral studies suggest that pinnipeds may use their sense of smell in a variety of behavioral contexts including social communication, foraging, food selection, and reproduction.

• In the wild, Harp seal mothers and South American sea lion mothers recognize their pups via olfactory investigation.
• Male South African fur seals show frequent nuzzling behavior at females' facial and perineal regions during the breeding season.
• Male ringed seals and grey seals emit strong odors during the rut. These secretions are thought to be used for territorial marking, pretection from predator attacks and/or attracting females.

Previous studies show that South African fur seals can be trained to respond to odor stimuli, and that they possess well-develpoed olfactory learning and discrimination capabilities, and an excellent long-term memory for odors.

In this study, I aimed to

• assess their ability to discriminate between the odors of 12 pairs of enantiomers. 
• compare their performance to those of other species tested previously on the same set of odor pairs.

*What are enantiomers?

Enantiomers are mirror-imaged molecules, that is, the (+)-form and the (-)-form of a given enatiomer are identical in most of their physical properties such as size, shape, and electrical charge distribution but only differ from each other in chirality. Thus, enantiomers are particularly useful for assessing olfactory discrimination abilities.