Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Crabeater seals can raise their heads and arch their backs while on ice, and they are able to move quickly if not subject to overheating. Crabeater seals exhibit scarring either from leopard seal attacks around the flippers or, for males, during the breeding season while fighting for mates around the throat and jaw. [3]
All lobodontine seals have circumpolar distributions surrounding Antarctica. They include both the world's most abundant seal (the crabeater seal) and the only predominantly mammal-eating seal (the leopard seal). While the Weddell seal prefers the shore-fast ice, the other species live primarily on and around the off-shore pack ice. Thus ...
All six Antarctic seals can be found here, the two fur seals, leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii), southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), and crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus)). The fur seals and southern elephant seal breed in the region, and are increasing in numbers now that seal-hunting has ...
The skull of the leopard seal. The leopard seal has a distinctively long and muscular body shape when compared to other seals. The overall length of adults is 2.4–3.5 m (7.9–11.5 ft) and their weight is in the range 200 to 600 kilograms (440 to 1,320 lb), making them the same length as the northern walrus but usually less than half the weight.
Crabeater seals have a population of around 15 million, making them one of the most numerous large animals on the planet. [31] The New Zealand sea lion ( Phocarctos hookeri ), one of the rarest and most localised pinnipeds, breeds almost exclusively on the subantarctic Auckland Islands , although historically it had a wider range. [ 32 ]
Antarctic krill is the keystone species of the Antarctic ecosystem beyond the coastal shelf, [22] and provides an important food source for whales, seals (such as leopard seals, fur seals, and crabeater seals), squid, icefish, penguins, albatrosses and many other species of birds. Crabeater seals have even developed special teeth as an ...
However, it is possible that the front teeth interlocked, and the cheek teeth sheared against each other when the mouth was closed, which perhaps allowed the whale to filter feed similar to the modern day crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga). This may have been a precursor to the evolution of baleen and associated feeding habits.
A group of crabeater seals relaxing on an iceberg. These pinnipeds are planktivores and feed primarily on krill. Many fishes are planktivorous during all or part of their life cycles, and these planktivorous fish are important to human industry and as prey for other organisms in the environment like seabirds and piscivorous fishes. [31]