Its dark-spotted skin and ferocious disposition are the reason why this seal got its formidable name. The leopard seal is quite rightly considered the only absolute predator in the diverse family of true seals. This is because its diet is based on warm-blooded vertebrates, most often penguins and other seals.
An adult leopard seal grows up to 4 meters in length and weighs up to half a ton. Females are noticeably larger and stronger than males. It differs from other seals in its long flexible neck and flattened small head. The long, spindle-shaped body is covered with short, dense fur. It is perfectly adapted for swimming. When moving, the leopard seal actively works with its front fins and flippers, which gives it incredible speed and maneuverability. The sharp fangs reach 2.5 cm, the back teeth are adapted for filtering krill from sea water. There are no auricles. An excellent sense of smell and vision helps the predator in hunting. A thin layer of fat forces him to constantly look for prey in order to get the calories necessary for life.
Leopard seals have made their home in the harsh Antarctic waters. In winter, they sail to the subantarctic islands, reaching Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and occasionally even Australia and New Zealand. In the summer they return back to Antarctica. They spend most of the year close to the coastline where their prey lives.
Despite the predatory nature of the leopard seal, about 45% of its diet consists of krill - small sea crustaceans. As night falls, they rise from the depths to the surface of the water. The seal passes water through its mouth, straining out crustaceans and small fish. Another 10% of food is a variety of fish. But the remaining 45% comes from penguins and smaller crabeater and Weddell seals. In water, adult penguins are faster and more agile than a leopard, which is why young birds that are just starting to swim serve as its prey. The predator hides behind an iceberg and waits for the penguins to dive. Then he pounces on them, grabs them by the skin and shakes it until it comes off the carcass. Then it eats only fat, the most energy-intensive part of the prey. They show such aggressiveness closer to autumn, when it is necessary to feed before a long journey.
The daily life of leopard seals is studied by scientific research expeditions, but still little is known about them. In the spring, with songs, males attract females to the ice caves of icebergs, where they mate with them. After 11 months, the cubs are born right on the ice. Their length reaches one and a half meters and their weight is 30 kilograms. For just a month, the mother feeds the offspring with milk, and then teaches swimming and hunting. Then they part forever. Young leopard seals form small flocks, but adult animals are solitary and meet only during the mating period.
Leopard seals are also dangerous to humans. There have been recorded cases of them attacking divers. In 2003, such a beast drowned marine biologist Kirsty Brown, who was only 28 years old. Researchers are advised to immediately leave the water if these predators appear nearby. Although it happened that a seal brought captured penguins to people with the clear intention of playing.
The number of leopard seals is estimated at 400,000 individuals. Global changes climate change could put them at risk. Melting ice, the disappearance of icebergs and drifting ice floes will deprive leopard seals of habitat, breeding and hunting. But so far the magnificent beast is not in danger of extinction.
The depths of the sea are inhabited by a huge number of inhabitants. Some of them are quite cute and cute creatures, some are very strange, incomprehensible, and some are completely invisible. But now we will talk about one of the most formidable and dangerous inhabitants of the sea - about leopard seal.
Appearance of a leopard seal
Leopard seal belongs to the family seals, and is the most major representative of this type. The size of this predator is impressive - the body length of the male is 3 meters, the female is up to 4 meters.
The weight of females is almost half a ton and about 270-300 kg. in males. As you can see, females cannot boast of grace, but on the contrary, they are quite weighty compared to males. But, despite such size, there is very little on the body of the leopard seal. subcutaneous fat.
The huge body has a streamlined shape, which allows it to develop high speed in the water. Strong and powerful long limbs, as well as natural flexibility, serve the same purpose.
The shape of the skull is flattened, which makes it resemble the head of reptiles. In the mouth of a leopard there are two rows of sharp teeth with fangs up to 2.5 cm. Vision and smell are well developed, there are no auricles.
This leopard, in fact, was called partly for its color - there are random white spots on the dark gray skin of the back. The belly is light, but the pattern of spots on it is, on the contrary, dark. The skin itself is very dense, the fur is short.
Leopard seal habitat
The leopard seal lives in Antarctica, along the entire perimeter of the ice. Juveniles swim to small isolated islands in sub-Antarctic waters and can be there at any time of the year. Animals prefer to stick to the coastline and not swim far into the ocean, except during migration.
The most important delicacy for a leopard seal is penguins.
With the onset of winter cold, leopard seals swim to more warm waters Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, New Zealand, Australia. On the most remote of the inhabited islands, Easter Island, traces of this animal were also found. When the time comes, leopards move back to their Antarctic ice.
Leopard seal lifestyle
Unlike its seal relatives, the leopard seal prefers to live alone rather than gather in large groups on the shore. Only younger individuals can sometimes form small groups.
Males and females do not contact in any way, except for those moments when it is time to mate. During the day, the animals lie calmly on the ice floe, and when night comes, they dive into the water to feed.
When hunting for penguins, a leopard seal can jump onto land
Leopard seal, in its territorial waters considered one of the main and dominant predators. Thanks to the ability to reach a speed of 30-40 km/h in water, the ability to dive to a depth of 300 meters and the ability to jump high out of the water, this sea animal has created the reputation of a real leopard.
Leopard seal diet
Despite its enormous size and fame as a ferocious beast of prey, the basis of the leopard seal's diet (45% of its total food) is krill. Its mouth is designed in such a way that it can filter water through its teeth so that small crustaceans end up inside. This device is similar to the structural features of the mouth of the crabeater seal, but less perfect.
Another significant ingredient in the leopard seal's menu are small mammals - crabeater seals, eared seals, Weddell seals and.
Pictured is a leopard seal cub
Moreover, individual predators can specialize in a certain type of animal. It is not clear what caused this - hunting characteristics, habits or taste preferences.
It is very difficult to catch an adult penguin, which can swim as well as the predator itself, so chicks most often become victims. Penguins and seals are hunted mainly for the fat the leopard needs.
Leopards hunt such prey both in water and by jumping onto land. It often happens that a gaping penguin stands at the edge of the ice, while a predator has already noticed it from the depths.
Being able to deftly and quickly jump onto the ice, the leopard seal easily grabs unwary animals. Some manage to escape and flee, as evidenced by the numerous scars on their bodies.
If it was not possible to escape, then the animal will face a bloody reprisal. The leopard has the habit of skinning its prey by sharp jerks. Swinging its prey from side to side over the water, the leopard seal separates the meat it does not need from its fatty skin.
Such hunting becomes more and more active in the fall, when the predator needs to “warm up” before the cold weather. The animal also feeds on fish, but in very small proportions.
From the water, it is quite difficult for a leopard seal to distinguish what kind of animal it is hunting, so sometimes they even attack people. But this is very rare - only one was recorded death with human participation.
Then the leopard seal attacked the female scientist and dragged her under the water, holding her there until she suffocated. Despite the apparent danger of these large animals, professional photographers still find the courage to study them. And many speak of leopard seals as curious and harmless animals.
Reproduction and lifespan
With the arrival of spring, leopard seals begin their breeding season. In order to attract a female, gentlemen are ready for some sophisticated tricks - for example, in order to amaze her with the power of their voice, they swim into the cavities of icebergs, which work as sound amplifiers, and sing mating songs there.
Having copulated in water in spring or summer, females expect offspring to appear in 11 months, that is, with the arrival of the next warm season. The cubs are born on the ice, immediately surprising in size - up to 30 kg. weight and about one and a half meters in length.
For the first month, the female feeds him with milk, then teaches him to dive and hunt. Leopard seals reach sexual maturity at four years of age, and their life expectancy is about 26 years.
Despite the fact that their current population is about 400 thousand individuals, the life of these large seals directly depends on the number of drifting Antarctic ice, because they live on them, their offspring are born on ice floes.
Therefore, perhaps the main danger for these animals will be global warming. We can only hope that climate change will not threaten their lives.
The leopard seal (lat. Hydrurga leptonyx) is a predatory aquatic mammal from the family of True seals (Phocidae). Unlike most other pinnipeds, fish plays a minor role in its diet. It prefers to hunt warm-blooded vertebrates; there are known cases of attacks on people. Most often, the predator jumps out of the water and tries to grab a naturalist sitting in a boat in order to drag him into the abyss to great depths.
During the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), an angry beast chased one of its participants, Thomas Hans Orde-Lie, across the ice for a long time. Being a big sports fan, he arrived in Antarctica with his bicycle and decided to ride it at the edge of the ice. His terrified cry was heard by Frank Wilde, the deputy leader of the expedition. The unperturbed Briton ran out of the tent, killed the bloodthirsty seal with a well-aimed shot from a gun and saved the life of his subordinate.
Spreading
Representatives of the species Hydrurga leptonyx live in the Antarctic waters of the World Ocean along the entire icy coast of Antarctica. They cling to the edges of pack ice at least 3 m thick.
Young animals are most often found off the coast of subantarctic islands. Individuals prone to long migrations reach Tierra del Fuego, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and South Africa. Such trips take place mainly in winter.
The species was first described by the French zoologist Henri-Marie Ducrotet de Blainville in 1820 and named the Falkland Islands, located in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, as its typical habitat.
Behavior
Leopard seals lead a solitary lifestyle, with the exception of mating season and seasonal migrations, when they can unite in small groups. They are active during the day and only occasionally at night, when they hunt Antarctic krill (Euphasia superba).
In late autumn, predators swim north to warmer climes. At this time, they themselves often become victims of killer whales (Ornicus orca) and (Carcharodon carcharis), which are their main natural enemies.
To eat krill, the animal has a special structure of molars (molars), which allows it to filter plankton and retain small crustaceans in its mouth.
Leopard seals often attack crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophagus), Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddeli), Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus) and Aptenodytes forsteri. Many of them specialize in catching only mammals or birds, but most prefer situational hunting. They try to drag their prey under the ice, where it dies from suffocation. The victim can sometimes be killed outright by the sharp fangs, which reach a length of more than 2.5 cm.
The predator lies in wait for penguins at the edge of the ice, grabs them by the legs with its teeth and slams them into the surface of the water with sharp blows. He is able to jump out of it to a height of up to 2 m at a speed of up to 6 m/s. The hunter slowly eats the hunting trophy, tearing it from side to side into small pieces.
Males love to sing soulful songs, which are a bizarre mixture of low howls and bird trills. Their loud singing of 153-177 dB is heard for several hours a day. Vocals depend on age. Young singers sing various arias, and old people, wise with life experience, trust more in one time-tested melody. Females devote themselves to songwriting mainly only at the beginning of the mating season.
Reproduction
Spring in Antarctica lasts from November to January. If other pinnipeds consider it their duty to reproduce in colonies, then leopard seals do it alone. Mating season They pass from October to December after the onset of puberty at the age of 3-6 years.
Mating always takes place in water, not on land. The male mates with several females. Pregnancy lasts about a year, of which embryos do not develop for about two months. The female gives birth to one calf on the ice floe, weighing up to 25 kg and up to 1.5 m long.
Thanks to fatty and nutritious mother's milk, the baby develops quickly. Two weeks later he already makes his first dive into the sea. Milk feeding lasts about a month, after which the cub switches to solid food.
The younger generation has dark fur with numerous spots and stripes. Males do not take part in its upbringing. In the entire history of observation of this species, only three child-loving fathers were seen guarding their offspring.
Description
Adults reach a body length of 240-340 cm and a weight of 200-590 kg. Males are slightly smaller and lighter than females. The torpedo-shaped streamlined body is adapted for rapid movement in aquatic environment and allows you to reach speeds of up to 40 km/h. Acceleration is imparted by sharp synchronized movements of the fins.
Large eyes provide excellent vision, which the animal relies entirely on during hunting. The head is flattened, the jaws are strong and armed with sharp teeth.
The coarse fur is predominantly silver in color with characteristic leopard spots. The forelimbs are greatly elongated and equipped with swimming membranes between the toes.
The lifespan of leopard seals is about 20 years. The total population size is estimated at 300 thousand individuals.
His home is the cold and black water of the Arctic. This is the only seal species that is considered to be bloodthirsty and ruthless hunters.
The leopard seal is actually very cruel and dangerous.
Appearance of a leopard seal:
This seal is not at all like the harp seal, a cute seal with a “dog” face.
His head, more like a snake, looks like one big jaw with sharp teeth.
These teeth are dangerous for humans too, although such cases are extremely rare, they have happened.
Its snake-like body shape is very streamlined in the water, helping it accelerate to speeds of up to 40 km/h.
It can dive 300 meters deep and remain in the water without oxygen for up to 30 minutes.
The color of the skin is dark gray with spots very similar to “leopard print”, the color of the abdomen varies from gray-white to yellowish. The length of the animal is from 3 meters to 4 meters, the female is longer and heavier than the male, the weight of which sometimes reaches 550 kg.
The animal is large, but it has little fat, so it constantly moves so as not to freeze.
What does a leopard seal eat:
Leopard seals are predators that primarily feed on warm-blooded prey. especially penguins.
They chase penguins both in water and on land.
A baby penguin sometimes deftly dodges the sharp teeth of a leopard, but still, about 5 individuals die a day due to the fault of the predator.
But they do not disdain fish, as well as their relatives - harp seals and elephant seal calves.
How does a leopard seal reproduce:
Leopard seals live on average 26 years. These are solitary and unsociable seals, contacting each other only during the mating season.
Mating occurs in autumn or winter.
During this period, driven by the reproductive instinct, males and females mate directly in the water.
The female gives birth on ice after about a year. She gives birth to only one cub.
The weight of a newborn leopard seal is 25 - 30 kg, and its height is 1.5 meters.
The female is nursing breast milk the cub is about a month old, then teaches it to hunt small prey.
Afterwards, she leaves him, leaving him alone. At 3-4 years of age, the leopard seal is already capable of reproducing.
In Arctic waters, a leopard seal can always find food for itself.
A skilled hunter in the water, he learned to pursue prey on the shore, on fins, catching up with it and driving it into a dead end.
It is thanks to this talent that he remains a numerous inhabitant of the North.
The leopard seal is a large species of seal that lives off the coast of Antarctica. The leopard seal is known for its predatory nature, its main prey is penguins and small seals of other species, but it can also hunt fish and shellfish.
The leopard seal gets its name from its spotted skin, which is somewhat similar to the skin worn by a leopard cat.
The leopard seal has a ribbed, elongated body, which allows it to swim very quickly underwater. To accelerate, the leopard seal uses its forelimbs, which are elongated. He makes synchronized strikes with them, and uses his hind limbs more for maneuvers.
In leopard seals, females are larger than males. The length of the female can reach 4 meters, while she weighs up to 400 kg. A male sea leopard does not exceed 3 meters and weighs up to 270 kg. The largest known leopard seal is a female, 4.5 meters long and weighing 600 kg.
The leopard seal has inhabited the entire perimeter of Antarctica and can be found in all Antarctic seas. Young leopard seals, in search of their territory, reach the shores of the subantarctic islands, where they can be found all year round. Leopard seals are occasionally found in Australia, New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego.
The head of a leopard seal is somewhat flattened, like that of lizards. The mouth of this predator has two rows of powerful sharp teeth.
killer whale - a couple of the most dangerous predators Antarctic waters.Developing underwater speeds of up to 40 km/h and diving to depths of up to 300 meters, the leopard seal is a thunderstorm for penguins, although most leopard seals prefer to hunt small seals: Weddell seals, crabeater seals, and eared seals. Observations show that every leopard seal specializes in either seals or penguins.
Fish takes second place in the leopard seal's diet. It is important to note that these large predators also eat krill, these are small crustaceans that live in the water column. He filters these crustaceans using his lateral teeth.
This may seem surprising, but krill makes up 45% of the diet of these predators, 35% - small seals, 10% - penguins and another 10% other animals (fish and shellfish).
Leopard seals are like cats - they spend their entire lives alone and only during the mating period do the male and female spend time together. The female gives birth to a single calf and feeds it with milk for four weeks. After four years, a young leopard seal reaches sexual maturity. In nature, these animals live for about 25 years.
Leopard seals can attack people. They usually jump out of the water and grab people by the legs. This is explained by the fact that in the water they do not clearly see the object they are going to attack and mistake it for a seal or a penguin. But there is one fatal case: in 2003, a leopard seal attacked Kirsty Brown, a scientist from Britain, who was underwater diving. The beast held her for several minutes at a depth of 70 meters until she suffocated.
Photographer Paul Nicklen, who is famous for his photographs of leopard seals underwater hunting penguins, claims that it is possible to establish contact with these animals. While he was working with these animals, the leopard seals became rather curious and brought him their prey.
The number of leopard seals today is more than 400 thousand individuals. There is no threat to their numbers. In terms of population size, leopard seals are in third place after the crabeater and Weddell seals.
Leopard seal hunts penguin
I suggest you look at photos of a leopard seal underwater hunting a penguin.