Developmental Differences Between Baby and Adult Leopard Seals
Leopard Seals - Hydrurga leptonyx
Named for the spotting on its underside, the Leopard Seal is one of the largest predators in Antarctica, smaller only than the killer whale.
Leopard Seal facts - Nuts
Weight: Males upwardly to 300 kg / females 260 - 500 kg. Length:
Breeding Flavour: Pups built-in on the ice usually from November to December, though may occur up to a calendar month before or later. In sub-Antarctic Islands such as South Georgia the nascency season is August to September.
Estimated earth population: - 300,000 this gauge is from 1990, low population densities of solitary animals over vast areas are hard to guess.
Feeding & diet: A very varied nutrition of whatever creature that is small plenty for them to kill and eat, which as they are so large gives a large variety of potential prey. They will eat fish, squid, penguins, other birds and the pups of other seal species. They accept highly modified rear teeth which have gaps which assist them to sieve out krill from the water. The cracking majority of prey are taken in the water., they are ambush hunters.
Diving: Leopard seals are not smashing divers when compared to other seals, 15 minutes is the longest swoop recorded, they stay shut to open up water not diving great distances beneath continuous ice as other seals practice. They tin swim in short bursts at upwards to xl kmh (25 mph).
Conservation status: Least business. Protected by the Antarctic Treaty and the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals.
Distribution: Circumpolar, ranging quite widely to sub-Antarctic islands and more than northern waters, more and then than most Antarctic seals. They are generally establish well-nigh quite open pack ice, moving north every bit it starts to consolidate. If seen they will mostly exist found hauled out on ice floes rather than country, they may be reliably found nigh the open water at the edge of penguin colonies during the convenance season.
Predators: Killer whales, though non very frequently.
What are Leopard Seals similar?
Females are larger than males, leopard seals are often described as looking "reptilian" a look that comes virtually by having their eyes somewhat to the side of their head rather than facing forwards every bit do other seals, they don't really have a forehead or a pronounced snout, a very large wide mouth that is upturned at the edges completes the look. I think they look less generic reptile and more than sort of dopey dinosaur.
Don't be fooled by the look yet, leopard seals are very serious intimidating predators, they are the weight of five or more men, twice as heavy every bit a king of beasts or every bit much every bit a bear. They ofttimes appear more than squat when hauled out of the sea onto an ice floe where they are nearly ever seen, simply rarely coming ashore onto state. In the bounding main, they appear longer, sleeker and well-nigh serpent-like in course and movements, though they swim with large fore and hind flippers. They are the 2nd largest Antarctic seal after the Southern Elephant seal, their size is non e'er apparent in pictures as they are relatively longer and slimmer than other seals.
How practise leopard seals feed?
Leopard seals are built for speed, they have a large powerful head, a huge gape and a massive lower jaw. They frequent the edge of the pack water ice and in particular areas around penguin rookeries all around Antarctica. They are adequately opportunistic as predators and will e a wide diverseness of prey from krill to penguins to the young of other seals, particularly crabeater.
Their teeth are very much those of a carnivore with large curving canines, though they are as well partly adjusted with three large cusps on the pre-molars and molars that interlock and are also able to human action as a strainer when feeding on krill.
They are inquisitive and fearless, frequently approaching modest boats to investigate when their big "smiling" and all of those teeth they have can make them announced quite menacing.
Their way of dealing with penguins is quite gruesome. One time caught by either caput or anxiety, the penguin is swung violently in a wide vertical and smacked down on the surface of the ocean. The leopard seal may continue to practise this until the penguin is literally thrown out of its skin and feathers for the seal to and then bite into chunks and swallow. Floating penguin skins in the sea are a sure sign of leopard seals nearby.
The skull of an adult leopard seal. Adaptations for predatory feeding tin can exist seen in the long curved canine teeth, in the lobed rear teeth that form a "net" to assistance strain krill out of the h2o and in the massive size of the strong lower jaw with a large area towards the back where the powerful jaw muscles are attached.
Are leopard seals unsafe to humans?
Yes, leopard seals are more than capable of killing a human.
These are large predators bigger than any of the big cats and heavier than most bears,. Out of the water they are easy to evade (though see below) to the bespeak where they tend not to bother chasing prey due to their wearisome and cumbersome movements. In the bounding main nonetheless, where they are perfectly suited and adapted, they could pick off a human with no difficulty should they cull to do so.
Fortunately all the same, attacks are very rare, partly due to the fact that where leopard seals live, they don't run into many humans and partly that when they do, they overwhelmingly choose not to assault them.
There are no records of leopard seals attacking humans when they have been seen in advance, they will oftentimes interact with divers, showing great curiosity and often a rather disturbingly large open mouth full of big precipitous teeth as well! Whatever attacks have been surprise attacks which fit in well with leopard seals beingness ambush predators. Many recorded instances of aggressive behaviour have been at water ice edges where it thought that from blow the water the seal has assumed that the human is a penguin continuing on the water ice border having emerged from the body of water or virtually to go in.
The only recorded death acquired by a leopard seal
To date at that place is a single recorded fatality acquired by a leopard seal. The pitiful case of 28 yr one-time marine biologist Kirsty Brown who was killed in July 2003 at the British Antarctic Survey Rothera base while snorkeling with a colleague in shallow water nigh 20m from the shore. She was attacked past a leopard seal that hadn't been seen before the attack (leopard seals are ambush hunters), she was heard to scream and then disappeared from view. Every bit a shore political party launched a rescue boat, she was seen to surface briefly with the seal and and so disappear again, her snorkeling buddy final saw her at a depth of about 5m being held by the seal. 10 minutes later the seal was seen with Kirsty most 1km abroad belongings Kirsty by the head, she was face downward. Equally the rescue boat approached, 1 of the crew began to hit the surface of the h2o with a shovel and and so when close enough, to hit the seal which released her and swam away.
The base physician attempted resuscitation though after an hour of trying, Kirsty was pronounced expressionless. She had died from drowning, her depth gauge recorded a maximum depth of 70.1m to which the seal had taken her.
Equally a result of this incident, all diving or snorkeling activities are preceded by a 30 min watch for sign of leopard seal in the water, all activities are to be supported by boat and if a leopard seal appears anyone in the water must get out every bit soon equally it is safe to practise and so.
Other rather too close encounters with leopard seals
Shackleton's Royal Transantarctic Expedition, 1914-17, Lansing 1959, pp. 102 - 103
Returning from a hunting trip, Orde-Lees, travelling on skis across the rotting surface of the ice, had just reached camp when an evil, knoblike head burst out of the water just in front end of him. He turned and fled, pushing equally hard every bit he could with his ski poles and shouting for Wild to bring his burglarize. The animate being - a sea leopard - sprang out of the h2o and came later on him, bounding beyond the ice with the peculiar rocking-horse gait of a seal on state. The beast looked like a modest dinosaur, with a long, serpentine cervix. After a one-half-dozen leaps, the sea leopard had almost caught up with Orde-Lees when it unaccountably wheeled and plunged over again into the water. By then, Orde-Lees had nearly reached the reverse side of the floe; he was about to cross to safe ice when the sea leopard's head exploded out of the water directly alee of him. The animate being had tracked his shadow beyond the ice. It made a savage lunge for Orde-Lees with its mouth open, revealing an enormous array of saw like teeth. Orde-Lee'southward shouts for help rose to screams and he turned and raced away from his attacker. The fauna leaped out of the h2o over again in pursuit just as Wild arrived with his rifle. The bounding main leopard spotted Wild, and turned to attack him. Wild dropped to one genu and fired again and again at the onrushing beast. It was less than xxx feet away when it finally dropped. Two dog teams were required to bring the carcass into army camp. It measured 12 feet long, and they estimated its weight at nearly one,100 pounds.
Orde-Lees himself was a picayune more matter of fact, the concluding ane/3rd of his diary entry for the day, the 1st of January 1916 reads:
Nosotros were lucky enough to get five crab-eaters and a monster leopard over 12 ft long which Wild shot every bit he was chasing me round a small sparse floe. They are really dangerous animals and this was the first I had ever seen, and information technology gave me a good fright.
At that place were another ii instances during this trek when leopard seals made an attack on a homo standing near to the waters border in a similar fashion.
70 solar day Antarctic expedition In the Footsteps of Captain Scott's Southward Pole (Terra Nova) Trek, Wood & Jamieson 2000, pp. 179 - 180
Stretching one pes downward, I probed information technology with the tip of my crampon, much as I'd done with dozens of other working cracks in similar circumstances. Suddenly, the surface erupted equally the massive head and shoulders of a mature leopard seal, rima oris gaping in expectation, crashed through the eggshell covering. It closed its powerful jaws most my right leg, and I vicious backward, shocked and helpless in its vise-like grip. Feeling myself beingness dragged toward a watery grave, I locked my left crampon onto the opposing edge. I knew that once I was in the h2o, it would exist all over.
"Help, help, Steve, Tim, help," I screamed repeatedly. It seemed an age earlier I finally caught sight of their running figures. "Kick it, kick it, kicking it, go the encarmine matter off me, hurry, hurry for Christ's sake, you lot bastard, you bounder," I yelled hysterically, my gloved hands scrabbling fruitlessly for purchase on the smooth ice behind me as I strained against the seal's prodigious weight. For 1 tiny fraction of a 2nd our eyes met. These were non the pleading eyes of a Weddell seal nor the shy glance of a crabeater seal - they were cold and evil with intent. What fear the seal must accept recognized in my own during this cursory moment of advice, I tin can only imagine. "B***y hell, it'south a leopard seal," Steve shouted breathlessly every bit he leapt beyond the crack to attack the brute from the contrary side. "Get the bloody thing off me, kick information technology, for Christ's sake," I screamed again. "Aim for its eye, its middle," Tim shouted, his voice verging on panic. "B***d! B***d! B***d!" Steve chanted in rhythm to his swinging kicking."Get its eye, blind it," Tim shouted again. I watched, dazed, as the front tines of Steve's cramponed kick fabricated minor, fleshy wounds in the side of the beast'southward head near its eye. xv or twenty times his foot swung with crushing impact.
Blood streamed from the wounds and spattered to the ice with each sickening smack of the kick. The bear on of the fierce assail vibrated through my body. Stubbornly, the beast continued to grip my leg which appeared tiny in its jaw. I felt as powerless every bit a mouse caught past a cat. "It'south bankroll off," Tim shouted triumphantly every bit the seal of a sudden released its hold and slipped slowly back below the surface. Numbed, confused and mesmerized past the concentric ripples slapping the edge of the bloodstained pigsty, I stared entranced at the spot where the frightening creature had disappeared. "Quick, get him back from the edge," Tim gasped. Arms had just grabbed me when the seal'south monstrous form leapt in one case more from its watery lair. Lunging at me, it crossed the water ice with an bad-mannered gait, streams of bloody water cascading to the ice around information technology. Its large, interlocking teeth crushed downwardly on my plastic boot. "My god, we've diddled it," I gasped. "Kick it, kick it, for Christ's sake, kick it," I shouted, the fear in my pharynx threatening to asphyxiate me. "Its eye, go its eye," Steve shouted as he and Tim once again booted its head with the lance-like front tines of their crampons. Irrational thoughts careered madly well-nigh my brain. What would the ice look like from beneath the surface? What would decease be like? As if divorced from life already, I pictured the seal swimming downwards with my limp, reddish-coated torso in its jaws. I could come across pale green sunlight filtering down through the ice as I descended into the gloom of sure oblivion. Information technology all seemed so existent, so peaceful - a silent movie with myself as the reluctant hero. Tim'south tugging at my shoulders pulled me swiftly back to reality finally vanquished, the animate being had retreated to its nether globe. They skidded me quickly over the ice a prophylactic distance from the scissure. I stood up shakily. "Prevarication downward, allow's take a look," Steve implored, motioning me down. "No, I'one thousand all right. Thank god it's not cleaved," I gasped, as I tested my wounded leg by stumbling backward, away from the terror I had just experienced. Glancing down at my torn article of clothing I saw blood on my leg - whether it was mine or the seal'southward I was not sure. I unzipped my outer Gore-Tex and fibre-pile pant. "Oh my god," I trembled, horrified at the blood and puncture wounds on the front and back of my leg just beneath my articulatio genus.'
Leopard seals also have something of a reputation for liking (or perhaps disliking) the tail ends of inflatable boats known as zodiacs, like the 1 hanging around the end of the boat in the picture. That was an occasion when I was helping to support a diving team who had gone in the h2o to pic and photograph leopard seals, while they were under h2o, that i seal kept swimming by and giving united states of america menacing looks, occasionally they would feel the cease with their mouth or have a scrap of a chomp. Some bases now place guards on the ends of the boats to prevent damage by leopard seals.
Charles et al. 2004 , p.. 70 & p. 73. Sea kayaking the Antarctic Peninsula, 2003.
A big leopard seal was picking a gruesome fight to the death with the stern of one of the base'due south Zodiacs. The seal had the hapless craft in its massive jaws. The zodiac vainly blew air in the seal's face as its teeth tore into the rear pontoon. . . . For some reason leopard seals similar the tail ends of Zodiacs: there were 20 or so reported deflations during the summer season.
Source: https://coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/wildlife/leopard-seal.php
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