Crabeater Seal (scientific name Lobodon carcinophagus) drooling-crabby
If you arrive on the Antarctic continent, you will always see seals lazing in the sun, or gracefully sliding into the ice water or resting comfortably on the ice, because of their size, they will always give the viewer a great viewing experience. Antarctica, including some sub-Antarctic islands, often see the largest number of crab-eating seals, docile Weddell seals, the smallest and only antarctic seal with external ears - Antarctic fur seals, also known as "fur seals", they can walk with their hind limbs, are known for their large male noses, and are also the largest land mammal in Antarctica, the southern elephant seal, the slender leopard seal with a spotted epidermis, in addition to killer whales, leopard seals are the top predators of the Southern Ocean and Ross seals.
More about crab-eating seals
Crabeater seals, also known as "Crabeater Seals", are mainly distributed in Antarctica's ice floes and the nearly frozen water around them. During the winter months in the southern hemisphere, it may appear on the coasts of various islands around South America, Australia, South Africa, Tasmania, New Zealand and Antarctica. In winter, its area covers about 22 million square kilometers. Crab-eating seals may have been very reluctant to be given the name given to them by humans, but they did not like crabs, which may have been a mistake of early seal hunters, whose main diet was krill and small fish smaller than 12 centimeters.
Crabeater Seal (scientific name Lobodon carcinophagus) Photographer Peter Prokosch
After summer moulting, the crab-eating seal has a dark brown back and a gradually lighter abdomen. It has darker brown markings on the back and sides of the lighter brown fur. The fins are the darkest parts of the body. Its fur slowly changes color to gold throughout the year, and in the summer it is almost completely golden. In fact, it is sometimes referred to as the "white Antarctic seal". Compared to other seals, it has a long nose and a fairly slender body. On average, females are slightly larger than males, ranging in length from 216 cm to 241 cm. Males range from 203 cm to 241 cm. About 80 percent of crab-eating seals usually have long scars on either side of their bodies, most likely caused by its main predator, the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), another major natural predator of crab-eating seals as orcinus orca.
The crabeater seal’s impressive sieve-like tooth structure – Credit Imgur
The teeth of the crab-eating seal are very clear and are known as the "most complex of all carnivores". There are several nodules on each tooth, and the space between them cuts deeply into the tooth. The main tips of the upper and lower teeth are perfectly combined. When the crab-eating seal closes its mouth, the only space is the space between the nodules. This tooth structure may act as a sieve to filter krill, their main food source.
Crabeater Seal (scientific name Lobodon carcinophagus) Image by Troels Jacobsen
Crab-eating seals reach sexual maturity at four years of age, the gestation period takes up to a month, and their reproduction occurs mainly from October to December, on the ice floes around Antarctica, and the cubs weigh about 20 kg at birth. Crab-eating seals can live up to 40 years in their natural environment in the wild. Crab-eating seals sometimes have large colonies of up to 1,000, but usually they are individual or in small groups.
By Liam Quinn - Crabeater Seal in Pléneau Bay, Antarctica
Crab-eating seals are expert divers, mainly diving at night, and once in the water the dive can last about 16 hours. Crab-eating seal diving is divided into foraging dives, travel dives and exploratory dives. Most dives are for travel, lasting less than a minute and less than 10 meters deep, while foraging dives are slightly deeper, up to 30 meters, and seem to be going on all day, with deeper dives at dusk. This may be related to the distribution of krill; exploratory dives are the deepest, probably for pathfinding, and they usually occur before travel or foraging dives. Crab-eating seals sometimes use breathing holes constructed by Weddell seals, and young Weddell seals may even be chased out of their breathing holes by adult crab-eating seals.
In the late summer in the Southern Hemisphere, crab-eating seals usually drift north with ice floes all the way to the sub-Antarctic ocean islands, Australia, the coast of South America, and even South Africa. The crab seal is the fastest finned seal on land, and when sprinting, it raises its head and swings its head from side to side in sync with the pelvis, its front fin alternately moving on the snow, and the back fin is lifted off the ground and held together at speeds of up to 25 km/h.
Crab-eating seals are the world's most numerous finnipeds, estimated to be between 15 million and 40 million, and the world's largest number of large animals besides humans, belonging to the least concerned part of the list of environmental groups, because crab seals inhabit ice-filled areas that are difficult for humans to reach all year round, their main existential threat is indirect, mainly from the option of adequate supply of krill, and the ambitions of human fisheries may have an impact on this in the future.
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