Weddell seals By Ben

Quick facts Population:800,000 individuals Location: Antarctic circumpolar. Size :Up to 10 ft long. Weight :up to 1000 pounds. Diet: Fish, squid, & krill. Habitat: moving shelf ice near cracks and holes.

Description Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) belong to a group of seals known as Phocidae or true seals. The most well known example of the group is the harp seal. Weddell seals are large animals. Both adult males and females are about 3 m long and weigh around 400 to 500 kg. The head is small relative to body size and the colour is usually dappled grey and black on the back with a mostly white under-belly.

Diet Weddell seals are carnivores. Their food differs with time and location but mid-water) and bottom dwelling fish, squid, octopus and prawns are common. One seal was repeatedly observed to capture a fish weighing more than 40 kg. Weddell seals are very capable divers, remaining under water for up to 45 minutes and reaching depths as great as 720 m in search of prey. Lengthy shallow dives are probably exploration dives for new ice holes and food sources.

Breeding Weddell seals haul-out onto the stable fast-ice to rest and moult, and for females to pup, returning to the same area each year. Females of six years and over give birth in October to one pup per year. Pups weigh kg at birth and mothers care for them for six weeks by which time they have grown to kg. Pups learn to swim and haul-out of the water from one week old. During the breeding season males defend underwater territories from other males for access to breathing holes and females. Both male and female seals vocalise, males may do so to maintain established territories.

Predators Two main predators are orcas and leopard seals.

Habitat The Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii, lives further south on the globe than any other mammal. Although most ice-loving seals prefer the pack ice, the Weddell seal is found on near- shore fast ice. This seal's population is estimated at 800,000 around the Antarctic continent. Small populations also breed on South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, the South Shetland Islands, and the South Orkney Islands.

Movement They swim and slowly walk.