Appearance
The leopard seal has a very streamlined body, allowing it to develop great speed in the water. Its head is unusually flattened and looks almost reptile-like. The front fins are greatly elongated and the leopard seal moves in the water with the help of their strong synchronized blows. The male leopard seal reaches a length of about 3 m, females are somewhat larger with a length of up to 4 m. The weight of males is about 270 kg, and in females it reaches 400 kg. The coloration on the upper part of the body is dark gray and silvery-white below. Gray spots are visible on the head and sides.
Spreading
Leopard seal- inhabitant of the Antarctic seas and is found throughout the perimeter Antarctic ice. In particular, young individuals swim to the shores of the subantarctic islands and are found there year-round. Occasionally, migrating or stray animals end up in Australia, New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego.
Behavior
Leopard seal on an ice floe
Nutrition
Reproduction
Leopard seals live alone. Only young individuals sometimes form small groups. Between November and February, leopard seals mate directly in the water. Except for this period, males and females have virtually no contact. Between September and January, a single calf is born on the ice and is fed with its mother's milk for four weeks. Between the ages of three and four years leopard seals reach sexual maturity, and their average duration life is about 26 years.
Attacks on people
Leopard seal on an ice floe
Sometimes leopard seals also attack people. On July 22, the British scientist Kirsty Brown became a victim of a similar attack while diving. For six minutes, the leopard seal held her with its teeth at a depth of 70 m until she suffocated. This is the only one so far death attacks on humans associated with leopard seals, although repeated attacks are known to occur in the past. They are not afraid to attack boats or jump out of the water to grab a person's leg. The targets of such attacks were mainly employees research stations. The reason for this is the frequent tactic of leopard seals, attacking animals located on the edge of ice floes from the water. At the same time, it is not easy for a leopard seal from the water to recognize or distinguish who exactly its prey is. In contrast to examples of aggressive behavior of leopard seals, the famous Canadian photographer and winner of several awards, Paul Nicklen, who photographed their underwater hunting of penguins, argues that peaceful contact can be established with these animals. According to his stories, the leopard seal repeatedly brought him its prey and showed curiosity rather than aggressiveness.
Number and status
Categories:
- Animals in alphabetical order
- Species out of danger
- Real seals
- Fauna of Antarctica
- Animals described in 1820
- Monotypic genera of mammals
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Synonyms:- Rabinovich, Joseph Davidovich
- Vyngapur
See what "Leopard seal" is in other dictionaries:
Leopard seal- LEOPARD, ah, m. Same as leopard. Dictionary Ozhegova. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
LEOPARD SEA- (Hydrurga leptonyx), mammal of the family. seals Unity, species in genus. Dl. up to 3.5 m, weight, as a rule, up to 400 kg. Newborns (length 1.5-1.6 m) with long soft hair. The coloring of adults is somewhat reminiscent of the coloring of a leopard (hence the name).... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary
leopard seal- noun, number of synonyms: 1 animal (277) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary
leopard seal- jūrų leopardas statusas T sritis zoologija | vardynas taksono rangas rūšis atitikmenys: lot. Hydrurga leptonyx engl. leopard seal vok. Seeleopard rus. leopard seal pranc. phoque léopard ryšiai: platesnis terminas – jūrų leopardai… Žinduolių pavadinimų žodynas
Leopard seal- (Stenorhynchus leptonyx F. Cuv. s. leopardinus Wagn.) from the seal family (Phocidae). Features of the genus Stenorhynchus: dental formula of incisors 2/2, canines 1/1, molars 5/5; of the indigenous ones, some have 2 roots, others have one; nose on the edge and... ... encyclopedic Dictionary F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
LEOPARD- LEOPARD, huh, husband. Same as leopard. The leopard seal is a large marine predatory Antarctic pinniped of the family. seals, with a color resembling a leopard. | adj. leopard print, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
September 6th, 2012
Do you know what kind of animal this is? Don't be fooled by his cute little face. Below the cut, the photos are practically not for the faint of heart. But what to do, this is natural selection in nature.
So, anyone who wants to learn more about the sea predator and isn’t afraid of a little blood, follow me along...
It seems like a sweet and safe creature of nature. Yes?
Well, imagine yourself as a penguin. He walks along Antarctica, looks into the ocean before diving...
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And there’s such a puck on him!
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then a short chase...
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will catch him with her tenacious teeth
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tight tight...
and then grunt... and that's it... like a monkey newspaper!
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It's a pity for the penguin, but what can you do? Today he is just food and has not passed the test of natural selection. So what kind of predatory beast is this?
The Sea Leopard (lat. Hydrurga leptonyx) is a species of true seal that lives in the sub-Antarctic regions of the Southern Ocean. It got its name due to its spotted skin, and also because of its very predatory behavior. The leopard seal feeds primarily on warm-blooded vertebrates, including penguins and young seals.
Appearance
The leopard seal has a very streamlined body, allowing it to develop great speed in the water. Its head is unusually flattened and looks almost reptile-like. The front fins are greatly elongated and the leopard seal moves in the water with the help of their strong synchronized strokes. The male leopard seal reaches a length of about 3 m, females are somewhat larger with a length of up to 4 m. The weight of males is about 270 kg, and in females it reaches 400 kg. The coloration on the upper part of the body is dark gray and silvery-white below. Gray spots are visible on the head and sides.
The leopard seal is an inhabitant of the Antarctic seas and is found along the entire perimeter of the Antarctic ice. In particular, young individuals swim to the shores of the subantarctic islands and are found there year-round. Occasionally, migrating or stray animals end up in Australia. New Zealand and to Tierra del Fuego.
Along with the killer whale, the leopard seal is the dominant predator of the southern polar region, being able to reach speeds of up to 40 km/h and dive to depths of up to 300 m. It regularly preys on crabeater seals, Weddell seals, eared seals and penguins. Most leopard seals specialize in hunting seals during their lives, although some specialize in hunting penguins. Leopard seals attack their prey in the water and kill it there, however, if the animals flee to the ice, then leopard seals can follow them there. Many crabeater seals have scars on their bodies from attacks by leopard seals.
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It is noteworthy that the leopard seal feeds equally on small animals such as krill. Fish, however, plays a secondary role in its diet. It filters small crustaceans from the water using its lateral teeth, which are similar in structure to the teeth of a crabeater seal, but are less complex and specialized. Through holes in its teeth, the leopard seal can squeeze water out of its mouth, filtering out the krill. On average, its food consists of 45% krill, 35% seals, 10% penguins and 10% other animals (fish, cephalopods).
Leopard seals live alone. Only younger individuals sometimes form small groups. Between November and February, leopard seals mate directly in the water. Except for this period, males and females have virtually no contact. Between September and January, a single calf is born on the ice and is fed with its mother's milk for four weeks. At the age of three to four years, leopard seals reach sexual maturity, and their average lifespan is about 26 years.
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Sometimes leopard seals also attack people. On July 22, 2003, British scientist Kirsty Brown became the victim of a similar attack while diving. For six minutes, the leopard seal held her with its teeth at a depth of 70 m until she suffocated. This is the only human death associated with leopard seals so far, although there have been repeated attacks in the past. They are not afraid to attack boats or jump out of the water to grab a person's leg. The targets of such attacks were mainly employees of research stations. The reason for this is the frequent tactic of leopard seals, attacking animals located on the edge of ice floes from the water. At the same time, it is not easy for a leopard seal from the water to recognize or distinguish who exactly its prey is. In contrast to examples of aggressive behavior of leopard seals, the famous Canadian photographer and winner of several awards, Paul Nicklen, who photographed their underwater hunting of penguins, argues that peaceful contact can be established with these animals. According to his stories, the leopard seal repeatedly brought him its prey and showed curiosity rather than aggressiveness.
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Leopard seal- one of the largest representatives of the family of true seals, its size and weight are second only to the males of the southern elephant seal. Its scientific name can be translated from Greek and Latin as “diving” or “small-clawed water-working”. At the same time, the “small-clawed” is a real Antarctic predator. It is the only representative of the south polar fauna, a significant part of whose diet is occupied by large warm-blooded animals - penguins, flying waterfowl and even seal brothers. A cute image of a hardworking animal, inspired by Latin name animal, instantly dissipates as soon as you get to know him one-on-one and look into the unblinking eyes of the killer. They literally make you smell chilling coldness and decisive strength.
This is how Gennady Shandikov describes the hunt for penguins: “ I had to see the bloody meal of a leopard seal from the shore two weeks later, in January 1997, on the same Nelson Island. That day, the ornithologists and I, two married couples - Marco and Patricia Favero, and Pipo and Andrea Caso - went to inspect the colonies of Antarctic blue-eyed cormorants. The day turned out to be unusually warm, bright and sunny. We passed a huge colony of tens of thousands of bearded chinstrap and gentoo penguins. About twenty minutes later, a magnificent coastal landscape opened up to our eyes, which was exactly like the rocky beaches of Kara-Dag with rocks rising at the water's edge. The similarity would be complete if it weren’t for the snow and icebergs, reminding us that this is not Crimea at all. Hundreds of penguins descended to a narrow cove in a crevice between the rocks. All of them covered a two-kilometer path from the colony to this picturesque beach. But for some reason the birds stopped on the shore, not daring to rush into the water. And from above, lines of more and more penguins slid down the ice slide. But they immediately froze in place.
And then I saw the drama unfolding right before our eyes. Penguins began jumping out from under the water onto the coastal edge of the ice like rockets. They flew up to a height of two meters, funnyly splashed on the snow with their bellies and in a panic tried to “swim away” along the hard snow crust away from the shore. And further, about fifty meters away, in a narrow neck lined with rocks, a massacre was taking place. Strong slaps on the water, whipped into a bloody foam, feathers floating everywhere - this was a leopard seal finishing off another penguin. It should be noted that the leopard seal has a very unique tactic of eating its victims. First, he rips off the skin from the penguin's body, like a stocking. To do this, the seal firmly clamps the prey in its powerful jaws and frantically thrashes it across the surface of the water.
For a whole hour, as if spellbound, we watched this terrible sight. We counted four penguins that were eaten and one that escaped.»
By the way, in Australia they even released a coin with the image of a leopard seal with a face value of 1 Australian dollar and a total weight of 31.635 grams. 999 silver. The obverse side of the coin depicts a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II of England; the reverse side of the coin depicts a leopard seal with a cub against the backdrop of a map of Antarctica and a landscape with water and ice.
By the way, whose are these? interesting photos? But he is a hero photographer...
Photographer Paul Nicklen went underwater with his camera to photograph one of Antarctica's most feared predators, the leopard seal. Paul was scared - the leopard hunts warm-blooded vertebrates (penguins, seals) and easily tears them apart - but the professional in him still prevailed. It was a very large individual. The female approached the photographer, opened her mouth and wrapped her jaws around his hand with the camera. After a moment, she let go and swam away.
And then she brought him a live penguin, releasing it right in front of Paul. She then caught another one and offered it to him again. Since the photographer did not react in any way (only took pictures), the animal apparently decided that the diver was a worthless predator. Or weak and sick. So she began to catch exhausted penguins for him. Then the dead, who could no longer swim away. She began to bring them directly into the cell, probably believing that it was through it that Paul fed. The penguin man refused to eat. Then the leopard tore one of them into pieces, showing how to handle them.
In an interview, Paul admits that tears were welling up in his eyes at that moment. But he could not do anything, since it is prohibited by law to interact with Antarctic animals. You can only observe. The result was unique photographs for National Geographic.
This is how he himself talks about it...
After the crabeater and Weddell seals, the leopard seal is the most common seal in Antarctica. Scientists estimate that its population is southern seas has about 400 thousand individuals. Today this species is not endangered
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Leopard seal
On the coast of the island and on the drifting ice driven by the winds you can meet the most major representative ice forms of Antarctic seals - leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonix Blainville). This seal is distinguished by its peculiar appearance- slender long body with a strongly developed chest, flexible thin neck, small size a head with an elongated snout and a wide mouth, armed with powerful sharp fangs, incisors and cutting tricuspid molars. The color of the seal is very unique: dark gray back, silvery sides, light belly. Scattered throughout the body irregular shape spots of black, dark gray and light gray of varying sizes. The “leopard” coloring greatly adorns this predator of the Antarctic seas, and its menacing appearance and large size involuntarily inspire respect. Adult animals reach 400 cm in length and weigh more than 500 kg. The cubs of these seals are born large: their length is 130-140 cm, their weight is 30-36 kg.
Of all the Antarctic seals that live on ice, the leopard seal is the most cautious. Seeing a person close, the animal usually turns on its side, raises its head, opens its mouth and hisses threateningly. However, the apparent clumsiness and caution of this seal on land or ice can suddenly give way to a quick reaction that simulates an attack. Despite its formidable appearance, the leopard seal tries to escape from humans by flight - it moves towards the water in clumsy leaps, pressing its large front flippers to its body. In water it is an agile and even graceful animal, capable of sprinting at high speed and jumping out of the water to a height of more than 2 m.
Like the crabeater seal, the leopard seal is a typical inhabitant of the drifting ice of the Antarctic seas. But unlike the first, it is distributed quite far north of the edge of the Antarctic ice. Leopard seals are found on the South Shetland, South Orkney Islands, on the subantarctic islands - South Sandwich, Falkland, South Georgia, Kerguelen, Macquarie, Heard, Campbell, Prince Edward, Amsterdam, etc. Leopard seals approach the shores of Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, South America(Cape Horn) and South Africa. We met these animals in tropical zone- off the Cook Islands. Obviously, leopard seals penetrate far into subantarctic and even temperate waters in the autumn-winter period, when they feed intensively after the end of the breeding and molting period in the Antarctic ice.
Many questions about the biology of this unique seal of the Antarctic seas remain unexplored. Both on the ice and on the islands, the leopard seal does not form large concentrations. Animals are usually found alone or in small groups. Researchers rarely see newborn leopard seal cubs in large numbers. Apparently, puppies are born somewhere in the ice massif, away from the sea ice edge, where ice destruction is not so intense. Although the majority of female leopard seals give birth to cubs on drifting ice, cases of birth have also been recorded on the shores of some subantarctic islands, for example, on the islands of South Georgia and Heard.
Usually the female brings one puppy, covered with soft and fluffy embryonic fur, dark gray on the back, light gray on the sides and belly, with rare black spots. Puppies are born at the end of spring: in warmer, northern areas - in September and October, in colder, southern areas - in November and even December. The duration of the lactation period is about four weeks, until the start of the intensive change of embryonic cover by the cubs. At approximately 30-40 days of age, when the puppies reach a length of 160-170 cm and a weight of 70-90 kg, and their embryonic hairline almost completely falls out, the females stop feeding them, forcing them to switch to an independent lifestyle. In adults, the mating period soon begins.
Males and females reach sexual maturity at the age of three years, but actively begin breeding two to three years later. Approximately 80-90% of females begin producing puppies at the age of 7-8 years. The duration of pregnancy is about 11 months.
After the end of the breeding season, leopard seals (excluding cubs of a given year of birth) molt. Scientists suggest that seals molt during the second half of the Antarctic summer and early autumn. Observations show that leopard seals do not form large concentrations on the ice during molting. They are more often found alone or in small groups. Molting does not prevent these seals from hunting in the areas of their ice haulouts, but not as intensely as during the feeding period that begins after molting.
Areas of intensive feeding for leopard seals are still almost unknown. However, data on the composition of food indicate that the objects of their food are different in different areas of Antarctica. In some areas, the diet of seals is dominated by squid, in others by fish from the nototheniaceae family, and in still others by penguins. Remains of their closest relatives - Weddell seals, crabeaters, Ross seals, and fur seals - are also found in the stomachs of leopard seals. It should be noted that direct observations indicating attacks by leopard seals on other seals are rare. It can be assumed that the leopard attacks mainly cubs and young animals. All this characterizes the leopard seal as an omnivorous predator.
Information about leopard seals in the South Shetland Islands is very scarce. We can only state the fact that animals visit this area of Antarctica, but here they are few in number and do not breed. This is evidenced by data on the number of leopard seals. Summer of 1967 and 1968 Only 74 leopard seals were recorded; 26 animals were found on King George Island (Waterloo).
During the period research work on the Fildes Peninsula from November 1973 to January 1975 we met 136 leopard seals. Of these, only four seals were spotted on the shore in summer time year (February), and 132 - on ice brought to the shore. During the rest of the year, leopard seals were not observed either on the shore or on fast ice and drift ice in the area of the Fildes Peninsula.
All leopard seals encountered on the shore in February were newcomers from the Drake Passage. Their stay in the bays of the Pacific coast of the Fildes Peninsula was temporary. The animals rested for a while, then went into the water and swam away in an unknown direction, sometimes sticking to the shoreline.
Observations of leopard seals suggest that these seals explored the nearby bays and bays of the peninsula in search of food. Of the four animals seen in February 1974, three were adult females and one was a calf of that year of birth. The cub swam from the sea very tired and long time rested on the shore near the water's edge; Only the appearance of a man disturbed his sleep, and he again went to sea.
A large leopard seal was found on the shore near the observation post. Before coming ashore, he swam for a long time in the water and hunted chinstrap penguins, small groups of which were frolicking in the bay. About two hours after the hunt, the seal came ashore and was shot. It was a large female at the age of 16 years (length 302 cm, weight 408 kg, subcutaneous fat thickness 3.5 cm). Upon autopsy, it turned out that the stomach was completely filled with food weighing 14.1 kg. The food consisted exclusively of chinstrap penguins. The large and small intestines, weighing about 20 kg, were filled with bird feathers. These data, obtained directly after the seal hunted penguins, indicate the extraordinary gluttony of the leopard seal. Obviously, for a large leopard seal this amount of food is not the limit, since foreign researchers found up to 17 kg of krill or about 18 kg of large fish in the stomachs of seals.
However, it cannot be assumed that the leopard seal feeds mainly on warm-blooded animals - seabirds, seals, as well as the corpses of these animals and the meat of killed whales. According to the Norwegian researcher T. Eritsland, such food makes up only about 40% and about the same amount is krill, and the rest is fish, cephalopods and other food. If we take into account that the estimated number of leopard seals in the Antarctic seas is 500 thousand individuals, and daily food consumption is approximately 7% of the animal’s body weight, then during the year these seals consume more than 3 million tons of various food.
It was said above that most leopard seals were found on the drifting and fast ice, mainly in Ardley Bay, located on the Atlantic side of the Fildes Peninsula. For the first time, two adult leopard seals were discovered on the ice in this bay in late autumn (mid-May). The animals were brought here along with the ice from the sea. One of the animals turned out to be a female, aged 14 years, body length 323 cm, weight more than 480 kg. The animals were in the stage of intense molting. There was a lot of lost hair where they were lying.
The next meeting with leopard seals occurred only in early spring, in September, on the fast ice of Ardley Bay. At this time, seals periodically appeared from the sea. In October, the number of animals in the bay increased significantly. Some left, others approached from the sea. A number of leopard seals were afloat among the waters or at the edge of the ice. During October, the number of leopard seals ranged from 3-6 to 28-33 individuals. In the relatively small water area of the ice part of the bay, the animals were located near the water's edge separately from each other, not forming groups anywhere.
Appearance is pretty large quantity leopards in Ardley Bay coincided in time with the approach of Gentoo penguins and, later, Adélie penguins, numerous colonies of which are located in this bay, to their permanent nesting sites. In October, pregnant females were also observed in groups of leopard seals.
During the period that leopard seals were on the ice of Ardley Bay, the animals intensively hunted Gentoo and Adélie penguins, and also ate krill, the mass approaches of which were observed in the bay at that time. Leopard seals disappeared in late October, when all the ice in the bay was broken up and carried out to sea. Subsequently, seals were seen sporadically in November and January.
Thus, observations carried out throughout the year indicate that leopard seals temporarily visit the island and adjacent ice areas. These seals do not breed here. It is possible that they visit the island in the summer and spring only to hunt penguins.
The current level of knowledge about the leopard seal allows us to estimate the number of these animals in the ice areas of the Antarctic seas at 500 thousand individuals.
Male leopard seals reach 3 meters in size and weigh about 270 kg. Females are much larger and more massive - up to 4 meters in length and weighing about 450 kg. With such an impressive weight, leopard seals have virtually no subcutaneous fat. This forces them to lead an active lifestyle, moving around ice water at a very high speed.
The leopard seal feeds mainly on fish, crustaceans and cephalopods, as well as warm-blooded animals and birds, including penguins. Scientists believe that most individuals have stable taste preferences: some choose seals as prey, others penguins.
Leopard seals hunt underwater or near the edge of the ice, lying in wait for their prey there. Their main tactic is to suddenly jump to the surface and grab a prey located at the edge. In the water, the leopard seal is light and maneuverable, but on land it is clumsy and clumsy. Therefore, prey that has retreated further from the edge often becomes inaccessible to it. But once in the water, the victim is doomed.
Despite such a predatory nature, the leopard seal does not pose a serious danger to people. The person arouses his interest rather than the desire to refresh himself. However, it is not uncommon for leopard seals to grab people by the legs and capsize boats.
The leopard seal has well-developed vision and sense of smell. There are no external ears, but the internal hearing aid is very sensitive and helps in searching for prey. The mouth has powerful jaws and two rows of sharp fangs up to 2.5 cm long.
The streamlined shape of the body allows the leopard seal to move in the water deftly and quickly, reaching speeds almost like a killer whale - up to 40 km/h. The leopard seal swims by synchronized strokes of its long forelimbs. It also brakes and changes direction with its front flippers, and pushes off the water with its back ones. The predator dives to a depth of 300 meters and can remain without air for about half an hour.
Leopard seals live in the Antarctic seas of the Southern Ocean. Migrating or stray animals may occasionally be found in Australia, New Zealand or Tierra del Fuego. They live alone. Only young individuals who have not reached sexual maturity can unite in small groups. Males and females contact each other only in winter during mating.
The gestation period for females is 11 months. A leopard seal gives birth to one cub, 1.5 meters long and weighing 30 kg. During the first four weeks, the cub is fed with mother's milk, and then learns to get its own food. Leopard seals reach sexual maturity at the age of 3-4 years. The average lifespan of an animal is 25 years.
Hydrurga leptonyx listen)) is a species of true seal found in the sub-Antarctic regions of the Southern Ocean. It got its name due to its spotted skin, as well as its very predatory behavior. The leopard seal feeds primarily on warm-blooded vertebrates, including other seals and penguins.Appearance
The leopard seal has a very streamlined body, allowing it to develop great speed in the water. Its head is unusually flattened and looks almost reptile-like. The forelimbs are greatly elongated and the leopard seal moves in the water with the help of their strong synchronized strikes. The male leopard seal reaches a length of about 3 m, females are somewhat larger with a length of up to 4 m. The weight of males is about 270 kg, and in females it reaches 400 kg. Maximum - about 600 kg with a length of up to 4.5 m. The color on the upper part of the body is dark gray, and below it is silvery-white. Gray spots are visible on the head and sides.
Spreading
The leopard seal is an inhabitant of the Antarctic seas and is found along the entire perimeter of the Antarctic ice. In particular, young individuals swim to the shores of the subantarctic islands and are found there all year round. Occasionally, migrating or stray animals end up in Australia, New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego.
Behavior
Nutrition
Reproduction
Leopard seals live alone. Only young individuals sometimes form small groups. Between November and February, leopard seals mate directly in the water. Except for this period, males and females have virtually no contact. Between September and January, a single calf is born on the ice and is fed with its mother's milk for four weeks. At the age of three to four years, leopard seals reach sexual maturity, and their average lifespan is about 26 years.
Attacks on people
Sometimes leopard seals also attack people. On July 22, the British scientist Kirsty Brown became a victim of a similar attack while diving. For six minutes, the leopard seal held her with its teeth at a depth of 70 m until she suffocated. This is the only fatal attack on a human associated with leopard seals so far, although there have been repeated attacks in the past. Leopard seals are not afraid to attack boats and jump out of the water to grab a person by the leg. The targets of such attacks are usually employees of research stations. The reason for this behavior of leopards is their tendency to attack animals located on the edge of ice floes from the water. At the same time, it is not easy for a leopard seal from the water to recognize or distinguish who exactly its prey is. The famous Canadian photographer and winner of several awards, Paul Nicklen, who photographed the underwater hunting of penguins by leopard seals, claims that peaceful contact can be established with these animals. According to his stories, the leopard seal repeatedly brought him its prey and showed curiosity rather than aggressiveness.
Number and status
After the crabeater and Weddell seals, the leopard seal is the most abundant seal in Antarctica. According to scientists, its population in the southern seas numbers about 400 thousand individuals. Today this species is not endangered.
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Notes
Literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 6th Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
Excerpt characterizing the Leopard seal
- Where, where did she stay? - said Pierre. From the expression on his animated face, his woman realized that this man could help her.- Father! Father! – she screamed, grabbing his legs. “Benefactor, at least calm my heart... Aniska, go, you vile one, see her off,” she shouted at the girl, angrily opening her mouth and with this movement showing off her long teeth even more.
“Show me off, show me off, I’ll... I’ll... I’ll do it,” Pierre said hastily in a breathless voice.
The dirty girl came out from behind the chest, tidied up her braid and, sighing, walked forward along the path with her blunt bare feet. Pierre seemed to suddenly come to life after a severe faint. He raised his head higher, his eyes lit up with the sparkle of life, and he quickly followed the girl, overtook her and went out onto Povarskaya. The entire street was covered in a cloud of black smoke. Tongues of flame burst out here and there from this cloud. A large crowd of people crowded in front of the fire. A French general stood in the middle of the street and said something to those around him. Pierre, accompanied by the girl, approached the place where the general stood; but French soldiers stopped him.
“On ne passe pas, [They don’t pass here,”] a voice shouted to him.
- Here, uncle! - said the girl. - We'll go through the Nikulins along the alley.
Pierre turned back and walked, occasionally jumping up to keep up with her. The girl ran across the street, turned left into an alley and, after passing three houses, turned right into the gate.
“Right here now,” said the girl, and, running through the yard, she opened the gate in the plank fence and, stopping, pointed to Pierre a small wooden outbuilding that burned brightly and hotly. One side of it collapsed, the other was burning, and the flames were shining brightly from under the window openings and from under the roof.
When Pierre entered the gate, he was overcome with heat, and he involuntarily stopped.
– Which, which is your house? - he asked.
- Oh oh oh! - the girl howled, pointing to the outbuilding. “He’s the one, she’s the one who was our Vatera.” You burned, my treasure, Katechka, my beloved young lady, oh, oh! - Aniska howled at the sight of the fire, feeling the need to express her feelings.
Pierre leaned towards the outbuilding, but the heat was so strong that he involuntarily described an arc around the outbuilding and found himself next to a large house, which was still burning only on one side of the roof and around which a crowd of French were swarming. Pierre at first did not understand what these French were doing, carrying something; but, seeing in front of him a Frenchman who was beating a peasant with a blunt cleaver, taking away his fox fur coat, Pierre vaguely understood that they were robbing here, but he had no time to dwell on this thought.
The sound of the crackling and roar of collapsing walls and ceilings, the whistle and hiss of flames and the animated cries of the people, the sight of wavering, now scowling thick black, now soaring lightening clouds of smoke with sparkles and sometimes solid, sheaf-shaped, red, sometimes scaly golden flame moving along the walls , the sensation of heat and smoke and the speed of movement produced on Pierre their usual stimulating effect of fires. This effect was especially strong on Pierre, because Pierre suddenly, at the sight of this fire, felt freed from the thoughts that were weighing him down. He felt young, cheerful, agile and determined. He ran around the outbuilding from the side of the house and was about to run to the part of it that was still standing, when a cry of several voices was heard above his head, followed by the cracking and ringing of something heavy that fell next to him.
Pierre looked around and saw the French in the windows of the house, who had thrown out a chest of drawers filled with some kind of metal things. Other French soldiers below approached the box.
“Eh bien, qu"est ce qu"il veut celui la, [This one still needs something," one of the French shouted at Pierre.
- Un enfant dans cette maison. N"avez vous pas vu un enfant? [A child in this house. Have you seen the child?] - said Pierre.
– Tiens, qu"est ce qu"il chante celui la? Va te promener, [What else is this interpreting? “Get to hell,” voices were heard, and one of the soldiers, apparently afraid that Pierre would take it into his head to take away the silver and bronze that were in the box, advanced threateningly towards him.
- Un enfant? - the Frenchman shouted from above. - J"ai entendu piailler quelque chose au jardin. Peut etre c"est sou moutard au bonhomme. Faut etre humain, voyez vous... [Child? I heard something squeaking in the garden. Maybe it's his child. Well, it is necessary according to humanity. We all people…]
– Ou est il? Ou est il? [Where is he? Where is he?] asked Pierre.
- Par ici! Par ici! [Here, here!] - the Frenchman shouted to him from the window, pointing to the garden that was behind the house. – Attendez, je vais descendre. [Wait, I'll get off now.]
And indeed, a minute later a Frenchman, a black-eyed fellow with some kind of spot on his cheek, in only his shirt, jumped out of the window of the lower floor and, slapping Pierre on the shoulder, ran with him into the garden.
“Depechez vous, vous autres,” he shouted to his comrades, “commence a faire chaud.” [Hey, you're more lively, it's starting to get hot.]
Running out behind the house onto a sand-strewn path, the Frenchman pulled Pierre's hand and pointed him towards the circle. Under the bench lay a three-year-old girl in a pink dress.
– Voila votre moutard. “Ah, une petite, tant mieux,” said the Frenchman. - Au revoir, mon gros. Faut être humaine. Nous sommes tous mortels, voyez vous, [Here is your child. Ah, girl, so much the better. Goodbye, fat man. Well, it is necessary according to humanity. All people,] - and the Frenchman with a spot on his cheek ran back to his comrades.
Pierre, gasping for joy, ran up to the girl and wanted to take her in his arms. But, seeing a stranger, the scrofulous, unpleasant-looking, scrofulous, mother-like girl screamed and ran away. Pierre, however, grabbed her and lifted her into his arms; she screamed in a desperately angry voice and with her small hands began to tear Pierre’s hands away from her and bite them with her snotty mouth. Pierre was overcome by a feeling of horror and disgust, similar to the one he experienced when touching some small animal. But he made an effort over himself so as not to abandon the child, and ran with him back to big house. But it was no longer possible to go back the same way; the girl Aniska was no longer there, and Pierre, with a feeling of pity and disgust, hugging the painfully sobbing and wet girl as tenderly as possible, ran through the garden to look for another way out.