Weddell+seal

Animal: Animal Group: Description of animal group || Weddell Seal Mammal Weddell seals (//Leptonychotes weddellii)// belong to a group of seals known as Phocidae or true seals.The most commonly known example of the group is the harp seal. Phocidae seals give birth to only a single pup at a time. || Observation Describe your animal (Colour, size, body parts) || The Weddell Seal is a large seal with a bulky body, a relatively small head, and a short wide snout. The adults are dark grey to brown with dark and lite patches on the ventral side and silvery white dorsally. The front flippers are small relative to the body size. Pups are born with lite grey or golden fur.Weighs up to 400-600 Kg. May reach legnths of 2.9 m. Their fat protects seals efficiently from the cold, both at sea and outside. As an additional protection against the cold they have a thin layer of very dense fur. The male is bigger than the female. || Describe how your animal behaves (moves, flies, runs) || It wadels because its more of a cross between a wadel and a shuffel acrooss the ice. || Where it lives || Weddell seals live further south than any other mammal, inhabiting the waters of McMurdo Sound, 1,300 Km from the South Pole. || What it eats How it eats || Weddell Seals eat an aray of fish, squid, krill, Bottom Feeding Prawns, cephalopods, crustations and sometimes penguins. A Sedentary adult will need to eat 10 Kg a day, wile an active adult will eat 50 Kg a day. || How does it have babies? How does it care for its babies? How long do they live? || Depending on the latitude it inhabits, this marine mammal gives birth from early September through November, with t hose living at lower latitudes giving birth earlier. During the mating season the Weddell seals make noises that can be felt through the ice, they are that strong.The seals are normally around 6-8yrs old when they first breed (but this can be much earlier for some females). The Weddell seal is one of the only breeds of seals that can give birth to twin pups. Birth of the pup only takes around 1-4 minutes. The pups take their first swim at around 1-2 weeks old. They can hold their breath for five minutes enabling them to be able to dive to lengths of 100 m (330 ft). After 6-7 weeks they are weaned off their mother and can basically take care of themselves. || What does it do during the day and night? || Weddell seals gather in small groups around cracks and holes in the ice. In the winter months they stay in the water to avoid blizzards , with only their heads poking through breathing holes in the ice. They are very docile and placid animals. || How has it changed over time in Antarctica? || Various marine mammals have been found to have adapted special abilities which help in their respiratory processes, enabling them to remain down at great depths for long periods of time. || They are classified as //least concern//. As these seals live along inaccessible Antarctic coasts, they have never been hunted commercially. Explorers killed many of them to feed their sled dogs, but this practice is now discontinued. Overfishing of Antarctic krill may have some effect on Weddell Seals. || under the 'arms'. Baby seals have never been hunted in Antarctica and big ones have not been hunted for about a century || Type in the content of your page here.
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 * **Threats:** || World population of Weddell Seals is about 800,000.
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 * **Other Facts:** || When seals are young, they like to be scratched
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