Animals seals. baby seal

Family True seals(Phocidae) unites 19 species of animals, whose life is connected with water much more than other pinnipeds. They differ from eared seals by the absence of ears (for which they are often called earless seals) and the fact that their hind flippers do not bend at the heel joint and do not participate in the movement of animals on land.

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Real seals they simply push off the ground or ice with their front flippers. Excellent swimmers and divers. They move in the water due to wave-like movements of the back of the body and rear flippers. Physiology allows them to dive deep for food and stay under water for a long time. During diving, the heart rate drops, but the level blood pressure however, it does not decrease. This is achieved due to the fact that at depth the blood flow to the heart and seal brain contracts, and the oxygen contained in it is spent on the work of muscles and other organs that help the animal obtain food. The body is real The seal is shaped like a torpedo and is protected from the cold by a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. The head, body and flippers are covered with short hair. Once a year, seals molt.
In some species, males are larger and heavier than females, in others it is the opposite. Mostly herd polygamous animals. Most species are characterized by a latent phase of pregnancy, a delay in the development of the embryo after mating. Thanks to this, the timing of childbirth and mating is synchronized and confined to a relatively short period of life on land.

Gray seal

The male weighs up to 300 kg and of all the real seals second in size only to the sea groan. The thick skin on the powerful shoulders of males forms numerous folds and wrinkles. They are sometimes 2 times heavier than females, have a wider, more massive muzzle and a more convex, rounded forehead. After the breeding season, gray seals make long migrations, but stay mainly in coastal waters, where they feed on fish, squid, octopus and crustaceans.
Within their range they reproduce in different terms, but females always go to the rookery before males and manage to give birth to cubs before their appearance. Arriving males immediately acquire individual territories, and they usually do not start fights. Old, experienced animals occupy the most convenient areas of the shore, although after a few days they can settle in a new place. For about 3 weeks, the female feeds the cub with milk, and then mates with the male and leaves the rookery.

harp seal

It has a black or dark brown head and 2 symmetrical dark markings on the sides of the body. On the rest of the body, the fur is usually yellowish-white or light gray. These excellent swimmers spend most of the year at sea, making regular migrations in northern and southern directions. They can move quickly on ice. The main food - fish and crustaceans - are often obtained at great depths.
They usually live in herds. Only old males stay solitary. At the end of February and beginning of March, females gather on wide ice floes and give birth to 1 cub. They feed for about a month baby seals rich, nutritious milk, and then swim out to sea to feed. 2-3 weeks after giving birth, females mate with males that appear on the ice floes. While courting their friends, males constantly start fights among themselves, using their teeth and flippers. At the end of spring, the entire herd begins to migrate north to summer feeding grounds.

Common seal (largi)

The color varies greatly: the main color of the fur can be light or creamy gray, and the spots scattered over it can be gray, brown or even black. Males are slightly larger than females. These seals They do not make long migrations and often choose to rest on rocky shores or reefs protruding from the water. Pursuing salmon going to spawn, they sometimes swim into rivers and fresh lakes. Main food for seals- fish, squid and crustaceans - are sometimes caught on great depth, remaining underwater during hunting for up to 30 minutes, although usually no more than 4-5 minutes.
They court and mate underwater. Females give birth to their young on ice floes and feed them nutritious milk for 4-6 weeks. Babies are born well developed: immediately after birth they begin to swim, and after 2-3 days they can remain under water for 2 minutes. When pup stops drinking milk, the female leaves him and mates with the male in order to give birth to a new baby in a year.

Crabeater seal

Perhaps today crabeater seals are the most numerous representatives of the pinniped order. They live in the desert waters of Antarctica, where, apart from killer whales, they have almost no enemies. They are able to move quickly on ice, alternately pushing off with their front flippers and the back of their body. The speed reaches 25 km/h!
The main food is krill - small sea crustaceans, which the polefish strain from the water using a kind of sieve formed by the deeply cut edges of the teeth.
Females give birth to young and mate with males from October to late December. Seal calves are born well developed, so females feed them milk for only 2-3 weeks.

Sea hare (sealed bearded seal)

On the sides of the muzzle, this representative of pinnipeds has thick, very long and thick whiskers (vibrissae). sea ​​hare- a large, heavily built seal with grayish-brown fur. Females a little more males. The animals obtain their food - crustaceans, mollusks and fish - mainly at the bottom, therefore they live in shallow coastal waters, making short migrations in search of food.
In the spring they gather on floating ice floes and begin to reproduce. Females reach sexual maturity at 6 years and every year they give birth to 1 cub, which they carry for 10-11 months. baby seals They begin to swim immediately after birth. Females feed them milk for 12-18 days, managing to mate with males during this time.

Leopard seal

Its long slender body perfectly adapted for underwater hunting of fast-swimming animals - penguins and seals. A wide mouth with sharp teeth helps to grab and hold victims. He catches penguins both in water and on ice floes. Before eating a caught bird, he deftly rips off its skin with his teeth. Sometimes eats fish, squid and crustaceans.
Information on the breeding of leopard seals is very scarce. It is only known that these seals mate from January to March.

Monk Seal

Monk seals are very rare. The previously deserted rocky beaches and islands where these shy animals breed now attract scuba divers, lovers of spearfishing and noisy boat trips. Often seals They also get entangled in fishing nets. Females with cubs and pregnant females especially suffer from a restless neighborhood: due to severe fright or constant stress, their milk disappears or miscarriages occur. Cubs are born from May to November, but most are born in September-October. Females feed them milk for about 6 weeks.

Weddell seal

It is distinguished by a disproportionately small head, a cute short muzzle and extraordinary trustfulness towards humans. Females are slightly longer than males. This beast is champion among all seals in diving depth. The maximum recorded diving depth was 600 m, and the duration of stay under water was 73 minutes! Usually seals hunt at a depth of 300-400m, and this is where their favorite cod fish stay. When diving to such a significant depth, the heart rate decreases seal 4 times.
During normal times of the year they live alone. Young animals sometimes live in groups. In the spring, during the breeding season, males apparently acquire individual underwater areas where females can swim freely. Females form small clusters on floating ice floes and give birth to 1 cub. For about 12 days they stay closely with the babies, and then spend half the time at sea feeding. At 6 weeks, the seal pups stop feeding on milk, and after another week they are already swimming with all their might and can dive to a depth of 90 m. Having stopped breast-feeding, females mate with males.

Khokhlach

It spends most of its life in the open sea, catching fish and squid at considerable depths. In summer, hooded seals gather on ice floes drifting in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland and molt. After molting, they disperse across the seas to meet again next spring in another place - off the island of Newfoundland. Here, on floating ice floes, females give birth to 1 cub in March, which are fed with milk for 7-12 days. All this time, a male swims next to the ice floe that shelters the female and her baby and drives away rivals. Periodically, it crawls onto the ice floe and emits a roar, the volume of which is increased by the expandable leathery bag on its nose. If another male appears on the ice floe, a fight breaks out between the rivals. About 2 weeks after giving birth, the female mates with her boyfriend.

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A true sea bumpkin, the seal is one of the amazing representatives of the animal world of our planet, combining both marine and terrestrial lifestyles. In a broad sense, seals mean all representatives of the order Pinnipeds, mammals that, during evolutionary transformations, have developed real flippers instead of traditional paws. But usually by seals we mean animals from the family of true seals and our article is about them.

Seal: description, structure, characteristics. What does a seal look like?

The appearance of the seal is due to their aquatic lifestyle. On the one hand, flippers, which give the name to the whole species - “pinnipeds”, turn these clumsy land-based hulks into excellent swimmers. On the other hand, seals, unlike whales and dolphins, have not lost their connection with land, where they also spend a lot of time.

All seals are quite large animals. Thus, the mass of a seal, depending on the species, ranges from 40 kg (for the seal) to 2.5 tons (for the sea). Also, the body length of a seal varies from 1.25 meters for the seal, the smallest among the family of true seals, to 6.5 meters for the elephant seal, whose name speaks volumes about the largest size of this type of seal. And what’s interesting is that many seals of the same species can change their size depending on the season, since they tend to accumulate seasonal reserves of fat, which then disappear.

The shape of the seal's body is elongated and streamlined, the neck is short and thick, it is crowned by the seal's head, which is relatively small in size, but has a flattened cranium. Seal flippers have very developed hands and feet.

The seal's body is covered with short and stiff hair, which, on the one hand, does not impede their movement under water, and on the other, protects its owner from the cold. Also, seals are protected from the cold by the reserves of subcutaneous fat accumulated by seals for the winter. In fact, this subcutaneous fat of seals performs a thermoregulatory function, allowing animals to easily endure the harsh Arctic and Antarctic cold. Most seal species are gray or brown in color; some species have a mottled pattern.

When you look at a photo of a seal, it seems that this creature is very clumsy and slow on land, and this is true, since when moving, seals rely on their forelimbs and stomach, while their hind limbs simply drag along the ground. Moreover, considering the rather large mass of seals, it is really difficult for them to move on the ground. But once in the water, the seals are completely transformed; the slowness and clumsiness that is characteristic of them on land leaves no trace - in the water they are capable of reaching speeds of up to 25 km per hour. In addition, seals are excellent divers, capable of diving up to 600 m in depth.

True, seals can spend no more than 10 minutes under water, during which time the supply, which is located in a special air sac (under the seal’s skin), runs out and they have to return to land again.

The eyes of seals, although larger in size, nevertheless, their vision is not very well developed (as is the case with all aquatic mammals), all seals are nearsighted. But poor eyesight is perfectly compensated by good hearing and especially sense of smell, so seals are able to detect odors at a distance of 300-500 meters. Seals also have so-called tactile whiskers (also called “whiskers”), with the help of which they navigate among underwater obstacles. It is also worth noting that some species of seals have the ability to echolocation, although it is much less developed in them than in whales and dolphins.

With the exception of a few species, seals do not have sexual dimorphism, that is, males and females look the same (only the hooded seal and elephant seal have males with a special “decoration” on their faces). As for the genital organs, in seals, like many other aquatic mammals, they are hidden in the folds of the skin and are not visible.

Where does the seal live?

The habitat of seals is very wide, we can say that this is the whole Earth. True, considering sea ​​image life of seals, they all live on the coasts of seas and oceans. The largest number of species of these animals live in the cold latitudes of the Arctic and Antarctic, where, thanks to subcutaneous fat They tolerate the local cold well, but there are also seals, such as the monk seal, that live in the warm Mediterranean.

Also, several species of seals, such as the Baikal seal, live in the inland lakes of the continents.

How long do seals live?

The lifespan of seals depends on whether it is a male or a female; females live longer than males, on average their lifespan is 35 years; males, alas, live on average 10 years less - 25 years.

Lifestyle of seals

Although seals form group aggregations - so-called rookeries on the shores of seas and oceans, unlike other pinnipeds, they are much less characterized by a herd instinct. For example, they feed and rest separately, and only in case of danger they monitor the behavior of their brothers.

Seals are also very peace-loving creatures; they practically do not quarrel with each other, with the exception, of course, of the mating season, when several males seek one female, in such a situation even peace-loving seals can be furious.

As we wrote above, on the shore, seals are clumsy and slow, so in rookeries they deliberately position themselves closer to the water so that in case of danger they can dive into the water surface. Also, from time to time they simply dive into the water for prey and then we move on to the next point.

What does a seal eat?

Seals are predators, and their main source of food is various marine life: fish, shellfish, crayfish, crabs. Such large seals as, for example, leopard seal, will not be averse to enjoying, say, .

Enemies of seals

In turn, the seals themselves can become prey for other larger marine predators: sharks and killer whales. Also, danger can await Arctic seals on the shore in the form of whites and people (for example, the Chukchi have been hunting seals since ancient times).

Types of seals, photos and names

According to the zoological classification, there are 24 species of real seals; we will describe the most interesting of them.

This type of seal is perhaps the most heat-loving among seals, as it prefers cold Arctic and Antarctic temperatures. warm waters The Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean islands, where it actually lives. Also, unlike other seals, it has a well-developed posterior part of the lower jaw. The body length of the monk seal is 2-3 meters and weighs 250 kg. It has a gray-brown color and a light belly, which is why it received its second name – the white-bellied seal. Interestingly, in the past, monk seals also lived in the Black Sea, and they could be found on Black Sea coast our country, but in Lately the population of these seals has decreased significantly, by this moment All subspecies of monk seal are listed in .

As you might guess from the name, the elephant seal is the most... great view seals, its length can reach up to 6.5 meters and weighs 2.5 tons. Also, some properties with elephants are given not only big sizes, but also the presence of a hot-shaped nose in male elephant seals. Depending on their habitat, elephant seals are divided into two subspecies: the northern elephant seal lives on the coast North America, and the southern elephant seal lives in Antarctica.

Named after English explorer James Ross. This is a relatively small Antarctic seal, well, how small, its body length is about 2 meters and weighs 200 kg. It has a very thick folded neck, in which it can easily hide its head. Little studied because it lives in remote areas of Antarctica.

The crabeater seal, named for its gastronomic predilection for crabs, is also the most numerous seal in the world - according to various estimates, its number ranges from 7 to 40 million individuals. It has average dimensions for seals - body length - 2.2-2.6 meters, weight - 200-300 kg, long narrow muzzle. These seals live in Antarctica and its surrounding southern seas, they often like to set up their rookeries on ice floes, swimming with them.

Named for its spotted skin and predatory behavior, this species is considered the most dangerous and aggressive among seals. In particular, leopard seals do not hesitate to attack smaller seals of other species, but their favorite delicacy is penguins. The leopard seal is larger in size than many other seal species, second only to elephant seal, its body length can reach up to 4 meters and weighs 600 kg. It lives along the entire coast of Antarctica.

It was named after another Englishman - the British navigator Sir James Weddell, who was the commander of a research expedition to the Weddell Sea, during which this type of seal was first discovered by Europeans. Among other seals, the Weddell seal stands out for its remarkable ability to dive and stay under water - while many other seals can stay in the depths of the sea for no more than 10 minutes, this seal can swim for an hour. Also lives in Antarctica.

Unlike its counterparts described above, this seal lives in the Arctic, mainly on the coast of North America and Greenland. It differs from other seals in its spotted coloring.

This type of seal, represented by four subspecies (depending on their habitats), lives throughout the northern Arctic hemisphere: on the shores of North America, Scandinavia, and in the northern part of Russia. Some subspecies of the common seal are endangered due to poaching.

The long-snouted seal is so named because of its snout, which is long, even for seals. The body length of the long-faced seal is 2.5 meters and weighs up to 300 kg. It lives in the North Atlantic: on the coasts of Greenland, Scandinavia and Iceland.

Another of the northern seals, living on the coast of Greenland itself. They differ from other species of seals in their characteristic coloring: only they have silver-gray fur, a black head, and a black horseshoe-shaped line that stretches from the shoulders on both sides. The harp seal is relatively small - its body length is 170-180 cm, weight - 120-140 kg.

It differs from other seals in its unusual striped coloration of white and black colors. Lives in the Berengov, Okhotsk and Chukchi Seas. The body length of the striped seal is 150-190 cm, weight – 70-90 kg.

Seal

The seal is the smallest species of seal, with an average body length of 1.5 meters and a weight of up to 100 kg. But this is on average, the smallest among the subspecies of seals is the Ladoga seal, which lives in Lake Ladoga itself and has a body length of no more than 135 cm and a weight of 40 kg. In general, seals live in the cold and temperate waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans, as well as in large lakes and inland seas. Depending on their habitat, subspecies are distinguished such as the Caspian seal, the Baikal seal, and the Ladoga seal.

Seal breeding

Seals, all types, breed only once a year. Their mating season usually begins at the end of summer. During this period, clashes are possible between competing males seeking the attention of one female. She, as expected, will eventually choose the strongest male for mating.

The pregnancy of a female seal lasts a year, after which only one baby is born. True, he is born as a fully developed and adapted seal. Small seal pups have white skin, which is why they are also called pups. They cannot accompany their mother in the water, so they spend most of their time on the shore or on a drifting ice floe. Very quickly feeding on fatty mother's milk, rich in proteins, they begin to mature and increase in size until they become adult, self-sufficient seals.

• The age of a dead seal can be determined by the number of circles at the base of its fangs.
• The mother's milk of a female seal is the fattest in composition (the fat content in it exceeds 50%), the same full fat milk only whales have it.
• The Latin name of the seal is translated into our language as “small guinea pig"(however, not quite small).
• Seals, like people, can cry, however, unlike us, they do not have lacrimal glands.

Seal, video

And finally, educational documentary about our today's heroes - “The Mystery of the Caspian Seal Rookeries.”

This article is available in English - .

Eared and real:

Everything about the seals of our planet

How to distinguish a gray seal from a ringed seal? After all, many people still confuse them. It would not be a crime to call a seal a seal, but experts do not recommend calling a seal a seal. And yet, only a small part of the animals with flippers that inhabit the seas, lakes and oceans of our planet are represented in the Baltic region. We tell you why the name “pinnipeds” does not exist, how eared seals differ from real ones, and how many seals live in Russia.

Pinnipeds are obsolete! Of course, out of habit, we all call animals with flippers instead of paws pinnipeds - fur seals, gray seals, and even walruses. However, scientists have long excluded this detachment from modern classification. By modern ideas, these animals have different ancestors.

Eared seals and walruses are closest to bears - this is where they get their small heads, hard brown fur, and small ears. It is believed that these animals descended into the water in the Pacific Ocean, although the earliest remains of the eared seal were found in France, in the Atlantic basin.

And the closest relatives of true seals are mustelids. This is where the elongated spindle-shaped body and short limbs relative to the body come from. For the first time, real seals entered the water in the North Atlantic Ocean.

The flippers of true and eared seals, as well as of walruses, developed in parallel - in an evolutionary way: after all, the paws of animals that hunt in water are not very comfortable. It is in the structure of the flippers that eared seals differ from real seals. The latter cannot stand on their hind flippers, and when moving on land they simply drag behind them. But Steller sea lions - this is also the name of the long-eared family - calmly walk along the shore with their flippers: their hind limbs are bent forward at the heel joint and look like a flattened leg!

Where do seals live? In the Northern Hemisphere, eared seals live only in the Pacific Ocean. And in the South - they are found at the southern tip of the South American continent in the Atlantic Ocean, as well as off the southwestern coast of Australia in Indian Ocean. Walruses live only in Northern Arctic Ocean and the adjacent basins of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans - in general, around the North Pole.

Real seals also prefer colder waters - in subpolar or temperate latitudes. The only exception is the tropical monk seal. Subspecies of this animal inhabit the Black Sea and the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian Islands.

There are also three species of freshwater seals in the world, and two of them live in Russia. These are the Baikal seal and the Ladoga subspecies of the ringed seal. The third freshwater seal is the Saimaa ringed seal, the only endemic mammal in Finland. According to experts, the resettlement into fresh waters occurred accidentally, and is associated with the retreat of glaciers. Previously, seals inhabited the seas, but when the glacier left, they found themselves isolated in inland waters. And adapted to fresh water. By the way, experts say that only Baikal seal. And the Saimaa and Ladoga seals are just freshwater subspecies of harbor seals.

What types of seals are there? The family of eared seals includes 7 genera and, according to different classifications, 14 or 15 species. Only two species live in Russia - sea lion, or northern sea ​​lion, and the northern fur seal. Both species are listed in both the Russian and International Red Books. The sea lion is considered endangered and the northern fur seal is considered vulnerable according to the IUCN classification.

Seals live near the seashores of temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. They never swim far from the shores and sometimes settle in large rivers and fresh lakes. Their distribution range extends along the Atlantic coasts to the border polar ice and along the American and Far Eastern coasts of the Pacific Ocean.

These are relatively small animals. With a male body length of approximately 1.5 m, the weight reaches 50 kg and varies between 50-150 kg depending on the time of year. The female is about the same size. The Pacific Ocean region is home to a particularly large race of seals. Their head is rounded, with a short neck, their muzzle is somewhat chopped off, their eyes are large, and their body is stocky. The color varies significantly from yellowish-gray with dark brown spots to almost black with white spots irregular shape. The teeth are large and the canines are well developed. Females have only one pair of nipples. The face has vibrissae with wavy edges.

Seals have no ears at all. In their place, only small holes are visible on both sides of the head. But this does not mean at all that animals are deaf. Some species of seals, especially in water, have excellent hearing. The hind limbs serve as the main motor organs when swimming. They do not bend and are extended back, so they are not used at all when moving on land. Therefore, they move somehow on land, but feel great in the sea. On the front flippers, which serve mainly as rudders in the water, five fingers are clearly visible, connected by membranes. Seals move easily on ice, and when danger arises, their movements resemble jumping.

After the disappearance of ice, seals stay in coastal waters, near river mouths. They swim there to spawn salmon fish, which seals feed on. In addition, they often eat herring, navaga, capelin, and smelt. Seals are predominantly fish-eating animals, sometimes significantly harming fisheries.

Baby seals are born in early spring. In Far Eastern species, newborns are covered with white fluffy fur, which lasts 3-4 weeks. In other species, this fur sheds immediately, sometimes even before birth. The calls of the cubs resemble the bleating of a lamb. The female feeds the baby for almost 5 weeks, and then he learns to get food himself.

From the end of summer and autumn, seals form haulouts on the shore, which are clearly visible on reefs protruding from the water, shallows and spits exposed at low tide. These haulouts form almost daily and disintegrate during high tide.

Common seals do not form large colonies. They spend more time on the shore than other seals and cannot sleep in the water. Seal families consist of a male, several females and pups of different ages. They often use the same place to spend the night, which becomes their group territory. Seals are very friendly animals and are very easy to tame; their main enemies are

Seals - common name marine mammals, uniting representatives of two families: true and eared seals. Quite clumsy on land, they are excellent swimmers underwater. Their traditional habitat is the coastal zones of the southern and northern latitudes. The types of seals that exist in nature vary greatly, but at the same time there are many common features in their appearance, habits and way of life.

Origin of seals

• sea ​​lion (northern);
• Californian;
• Galapagosian;
• Japanese;
• southern;
• Australian;
• New Zealand

In Russian waters, seals of this family are represented by sea lions and northern fur seals.

Protected species of seals

As a result of active human intervention in the life of nature, many animal species, including seals, are now on the verge of extinction.

Thus, several species of seals are listed in the Red Book of Russia. This is a sea lion that lives in the Kuril and Kamchatka regions. The spotted seal, or larga, which lives on Far East. The long-nosed or tewyak is currently considered protected. It is found in the Baltic Sea and on the Murmansk coast. The ringed seal, a valuable Far Eastern commercial seal, is on the verge of extinction.

Contains an entry about the monk seal. Conservation status This species is listed as "lost". This exceptionally shy animal has a low reproductive potential and cannot withstand close human presence at all. Only about ten pairs of monk seals live in the Black Sea, and in the world today their number numbers no more than five hundred individuals.

harbor seal

The common seal is quite widespread on the coasts northern seas Europe. This species lives relatively sedentary, usually choosing rocky or sandy areas coastal zone, islands, shallows and spits in bays and river mouths. Its main food is fish, as well as aquatic invertebrates.

The cubs of these seals are usually born on the shore in May-July, and a few hours after birth they go into the water. They feed on mother's milk for about a month and manage to gain up to thirty kilograms on this nutritious diet. However, due to the fact that the milk of a female seal contains a large number of heavy metals and pesticides from the fish they eat, many babies get sick and die.

Despite the fact that this species is not listed as protected, like, for example, the spotted seal or the ringed seal, it also requires careful attitude to itself, as its numbers are inexorably declining.

Crabeater seal

The Antarctic crabeater seal is considered the most numerous species of seal in the world today. According to various estimates, its number reaches from seven to forty million individuals - this is four times more than the number of all other seals.

The size of adult individuals is up to two and a half meters, they weigh two hundred to three hundred kilograms. Interestingly, the females of this type of seal are somewhat larger than the males. These animals live in the Southern Ocean, drifting near the coast in the summer, and migrating north in autumn.

They feed mainly on krill (small Antarctic crustaceans), which is facilitated by the special structure of their jaws.

The main natural enemies of crabeater seals are leopard seals and killer whales. The first poses a threat mainly to young and inexperienced animals. Seals escape from killer whales by jumping out of the water onto ice floes with incredible dexterity.

Leopard seal

This harbor seal It’s not for nothing that he is the “namesake” of a formidable predator from the cat family. A cunning and ruthless hunter, he is not content solely with fish: penguins, skuas, loons and other birds become his victims. It often attacks even small seals.

The teeth of this animal are small, but very sharp and strong. There are known cases of leopard seals attacking humans. Like the “land” leopard, the sea predator has the same spotted skin: black spots are randomly scattered on a dark gray background.

Along with the killer whale, the leopard seal is considered one of the main predators of the south polar region. The seal, reaching more than three and a half meters in length and weighing more than four hundred and fifty kilograms, is capable of moving along the edge of drifting ice with amazing speed. As a rule, it attacks prey in water.

The leopard seal is the only seal whose diet is based on warm-blooded creatures.