Hydrurga leptonyx

Leopard Seal
 
Leopard Seal
Leopard Seal
Leopard Seal
Leopard Seal
 

Common names for:

No Common names have been identified for: 

Hydrurga leptonyx

Description

Leopard Seal

The leopard seal is a big and very muscular seal. He has a dark back and a lighter belly. On its throat he has black dots, which have given him its name. The leopard seal is an excellent swimmer. He is very fast and extremely movable.

Leopard seals live a solitary life and only come together during mating season. After a pregnancy of nine months the female gives birth on the ice to one pub. She nourishes her pub until it can take care for itself.

Under water the leopard seal looks quite frightening. With its huge head with sharp theeth he almost looks prehistorically. Thanks to it movability he is an extreme good hunter underwater. A penguin has almost no chance to escape the jaws of the leopard. When he has eaten enough you will get to know a totally different site of the leopard seal. Like a cat the starts playing with its prey.

 

Food

The leopard seal has a varied menu. The main part of its menu consists of krill. Nevertheless the leopard seal is the top predator of Antarctica. It hunts penguins and sometimes even other seals.
 

Distribution

The leopard seal lives in the cold water around Antarctica.

 

Occurrence map

Biodiversity occurrence data provided by: Accessed through GBIF Data Portal, www.gbif.net, 2012-02-06

Count / one degree cell
1 - 9
10 - 99
100 - 999
1000 - 9999
10000 - 99999
100000+

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