*Seals, Sea Lions, Walruses

*The Pinnipeds

*Means “fin-footed mammals”*3 families:*Odobenidae*Walruses!

*Otariidae*The “eared seals”*Sea lions*Fur seals

*Phocidae*True seal (earless seals)

Introducing!

*Odobenidae

*Only lives in the Arctic!*Characterized by being very bulky *Has long tusks! (males)

*Phocidae

*Lack external ears*Torpedo-like bodies*Better built for deep dives & long

migrations*Not very social and live in smaller groups*Can’t walk on their front flippers like fur

seals, walruses and sea lions!*Examples: harbor seals

*Otariidae

*Have external ear flaps*Very vocal and social*Better adapted for land movement*Larger flippers than Phocidae*Examples: Japanese Sea lion & Stellar Sea

Lion; fur seals

*Did You Know…..?

*Out of the water, seal hearing is almost as good as a human’s?*The smallest pinniped is the Galapagos fur seal*About 4.5’ – 5’ in length!

*The largest pinniped is the male Elephant Seal*He can be up to 13’ long and near 8800 lbs!!!

*A seal’s nose closes automatically when it enters the water?* It opens again when it resurfaces!

*That seals use a type of sonar?*Their whiskers act like a type of radar, detecting

movement in the water* They can even find food in the dark!

*Only six of the seal species live in Antarctica, but they make up the majority of the seal population

*Antarctic Seals(southern seals)

*Antarctic Fur Seals*Crabeater Seals*Leopard Seals*Ross Seals*Elephant Seals*Weddell Seals

Leopard Seal

Ross Seal

Elephant Seals

Crabeater SealWeddell Seal

*Sea Lions