Seals may use 'magnetic sense' to find breathing holes.

Sunday, December 21, 2014, 10:27 AM - When you live your life hunting beneath pack ice, you really need to know where the nearest air hole is.

So it is with the seals of Antarctica, whom scientists at the U.S. Antarctic Program have been studying for the past few months in an effort to figure out how they find those rare lifelines, and how they do it so well.

And, after months of monitoring data from cameras strapped to several Weddell seals (Yes, really), it looks like they've hit upon the answer: A sort of internal 'GPS', linked to the Earth's magnetic field.

You can check out the full story in the video above, from the National Science Foundation.

The Antarctic Sun (in a piece published on LiveScience) reports that, if the research holds up, it'll be the first time the trait has been observed in marine mammals. 

It's peak summer in Antarctica. About as cool as you'd expect the southern-most continent to be, that's significant because the researchers are also testing whether the seals are using light intensity and day length to navigate to and from the air holes.

With the mission set to last another three years (again, according to LiveScience), they can test the hypothesis once the impenetrable darkness of the Antarctic winter sets in, as well as test the role of sound using underwater hydrophones.

POLAR BEAR CAMS: Scientists strapped camera to polar bears in the Arctic last season. See the amazing footage below.