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- Seals fly through the waves, predators in their natural element. But, unlike fish, seals are air-breathing mammals whose ancestors only returned to the water from a life on land some 30 million years ago. On entering the water, seals had to adapt both their bodies and behaviour to become efficient underwater swimmers.
theconversation.com/swim-like-a-sea-lion-splash-like-a-seal-how-evolution-engineered-natures-underwater-acrobats-160090
Where do they come from? Evidence suggests that pinnipeds evolved from a bear-like land animal that hunted in the water for food. How many are there? There are more than 30 species of seals worldwide. What do they eat? Seals are carnivorous and dive underwater to hunt for fish, crustaceans, seabirds, and other marine animals.
- Seal Sizes
- Habitat
- Diet
- Baby Seals
- Classification/Taxonomy
- Conservation Status
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There are 18 species of true seals, according to Seals World. The largest is the southern elephant seal. Males are massive, weighing up to 8,500 lbs. (3,855.5 kilograms). Females are much smaller, but still weigh more than a car at 2,000 lbs. (907.18 kg). Males measure about 20 feet long (6 meters), while females are about half as long. The smalles...
True seals typically live in the cold ocean waters of the Arctic or off the coasts of Antarctica. Some seals make caves in the snow to live in. Others never leave the ice pack and poke breathing holes in the ice, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Harp, ringed, hooded, spotted, bearded and ribbon seals live in the Arctic. Crabeater...
Seals generally prey on fish, but they will also eat eel, squid, octopus and lobster. Leopard seals will eat penguins and smaller seals, according to Seals World. The gray seal can eat 10 pounds (4.53 kilograms) of food in one day. They sometimes skip eating for a few days, and often stop eating completely during mating season and will live off ene...
When mating season comes, male seals will issue deep, throaty calls to attract the attention of females. A male seal will also call out to let other males know that his females are spoken for. Males are very territorial when it comes to mating. They will fight for the right to mate, hitting and biting each other. The winner gets the chance to mate ...
All pinnipeds — phocids (true seals), otariids (eared seals) and odobenids (walruses) — are in different families in the suborder Caniformia (doglike carnivores) and are related to dogs, coyotes, foxes, wolves, skunks, otters and bears. The taxonomy of seals, according to ITIS, is: Eared seals (fur seals and sea lions) 1. Kingdom: Animalia 2. Phylu...
All pinnipeds — seals, sea lions and walruses — are protected in U.S. waters under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, according to NOAA. Most seals are not considered endangered, according to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). There are a few exceptions, though. The Galápagos fur seal and the monk sealare both...
The crabeater seal has the largest population of any species of seal in the world. It is estimated there are 2 million to 75 million individual seals, according to the IUCN. Elephant seals have what is called "smoker's blood" because they have the same amount of carbon monoxide in their bloodas a person who smokes 40 or more cigarettes each day, ac...
Feb 9, 2023 · Do Seals Live in the Ocean? Seals are semi-aquatic, which means they divide their time between land and sea. Nearly all pinnipeds spend around 50% of their lives in the ocean, except the Baikal seal, which is the only exclusively freshwater pinniped in the world.
Sep 25, 2020 · Where do seals originate from? Seals are part of the order of marine mammals called pinnipeds, which also includes fur seals, sea lions (part of the Otariidae family) and walruses (part of the Odobenidae family).
Across the globe there are 19 species of seal. Most are ocean dwellers, living in places spanning from the Arctic, to the tropics, to Antarctica. The Baikal seal, however, lives in a landlocked lake in the middle of Asia and is the only seal to live exclusively in fresh water.
Seals and sea lions belong to a group of marine mammals called pinnipeds, which means fin or flipper-footed. These animals live in the ocean, but are able to come on land for long periods of time.
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Sep 26, 2024 · Though especially abundant in polar seas, seals are found throughout the world, with some species favouring the open ocean and others inhabiting coastal waters or spending time on islands, shores, or ice floes. The coastal species are generally sedentary, but the oceangoing species make extended, regular migrations.
