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The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), also referred to as the sea leopard, [3] is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the southern elephant seal). Its only natural predator is the orca. [4] It feeds on a wide range of prey including cephalopods, other pinnipeds, krill, fish, and birds, particularly penguins.
They are able to propel themselves quickly (as fast as 8 km/h (5.0 mph)) in this way for short-distance travel, to return to water, to catch up with a female, or to chase an intruder. Pups are born with fur and are completely black. Their coats are unsuited to water, but protect infants by insulating them from the cold air.
Seals typically swallow their food whole, and will rip apart prey that is too big. [98] [99] The leopard seal, a prolific predator of penguins, is known to violently shake its prey to death. [100] Complex serrations in the teeth of filter-feeding species, such as crabeater seals, allow water to leak out as they swallow their planktonic food. [86]
The only known natural predator of adult Baikal seals is the brown bear, but this is not believed to occur frequently. [1] The seal pups are typically hidden in a den, but can fall prey to smaller land predators such as the red fox, the sable and the white-tailed eagle. [4]
Ringed seals are both predators and prey. A predator to zooplankton and fish, the ringed seal is considered a primary consumer as well as a secondary consumer. But the tertiary consumer, or top predator, in the Arctic is the polar bear, feeding mostly on seals, including the ringed seal.
Grey seals are vulnerable to typical predators for a pinniped mammal; their primary predator would be the orca or killer whale, but certain large species of sharks are known to prey on grey seals in North American waters, particularly great white sharks and bull sharks but also, upon evidence, additionally Greenland sharks. Some grey seal ...
The harbor (or harbour) seal (Phoca vitulina), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared seals, and true seals), they are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific oceans, Baltic ...
Hawaiian monk seals have a broad and diverse diet due to foraging plasticity which allows them to be opportunistic predators that feed on a wide variety of available prey. [ 12 ] Hawaiian monk seals can hold their breath for up to 20 minutes and dive more than 550 m (1,800 ft); however, they usually dive an average of 6 minutes to depths of ...