Crabeater Seal
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Phocidae Genus: Lobodon Species: L. The conservation status of a Species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species remaining extant either in the present day or the near future Least Concern ( LC) is an IUCN category assigned to extant species or lower taxa which have been evaluated but do not qualify for any other category The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List) created in 1963 is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global Chordates ( Phylum Chordata) are a group of Animals that includes the Vertebrates together with several closely related Invertebrates Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands The diverse order Carnivora (kɑrˈnɪvərə or sometimes /ˌkɑrnɪˈvɔərə/ from Latin carō (stem carn-) "flesh" + vorāre The true seals or earless seals are one of the three main groups of Mammals within the seal Suborder, Pinnipedia. carcinophagus
Binomial name
Lobodon carcinophagus Hombron & Jacquinot, 1842
Distribution of Crabeater Seal

The Crabeater Seal, Lobodon carcinophaga, is one of the most remarkable, though least known, of the mammals of the world. Doctor Jacques Bernard Hombron (1798 &ndash 1852 was a French naval surgeon and naturalist. Honoré Jacquinot (1815&ndash1887 was a French Surgeon and Zoologist. Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands At a population of 8 to 50 million (LAWS 1973), it is perhaps the "second most numerous large species of mammals on Earth, after humans. "^[1] More than one in every two seals in the world is a Crabeater Seal and the population biomass of Crabeaters is about four times that of all other pinnipeds put together ^[2]. Pinnipeds ("fin-feet" lit "winged feet" or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semi-aquatic marine Mammals comprising It is also one of the most abundant and fastest seals. A crabeater seal can swim 16 mph ^[3].

Description

Males grow to about 2. 2 m to about 2. 6 m and weigh roughly between 200 and 300 kg. After molting seasons the fur of the crab eater seal is dark brown fading to blonde on its belly. These seals also have dark brown mailings along the back and sides. The fur lightens through out the year, becoming completely blonde in summer. Crabeaters have long snouts and slender bodies. They have distinctive and complex teeth. Each tooth has tubercles, or bony protuberances with spaces between them. The upper and lower jaws fit together so that when the mouth closes the teeth and the tubercles can strain krill.

Females grow up to 3. 6 m (142 in) in length and 500 lb (230 kg) in weight. Crabeater Seals colonized Antarctica during the late Miocene or early Pliocene (15 - 25 million years ago), at a time when the region was much warmer than today. The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23 The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts is the period in the Geologic timescale that extends The evolution of this strange, successful and abundant animal can be taken as a token of the bounty and continuous availability of krill.

Pups are born about 1. 2 metres in length and weigh between 20 and 30 kilograms. While nursing, pups grow at a rate of about 4. 2 kilograms a day. They are weaned after 2-3 weeks.

The seal's background colour is mainly silvery-grey when newly moulted, or golden to creamy white when the coat has faded. Older animals become progressively paler, even when freshly moulted, and may appear almost white. In younger animals, there are net-like, chocolate-brown markings and flecks on the shoulders, sides and flanks, shading into the predominantly dark hind and fore flippers and head.

Diet

Schematic of the skull, showing the unusual shape of the teeth.

Despite its name, its diet does not include crabs. Instead, a crabeater seal's unusual multilobed teeth enable this species to sieve krill from the water. Krill are a type of Shrimp -like marine Invertebrate animal These small Crustaceans are important organisms of the Zooplankton, particularly Its dentition looks like a perfect strainer, but how it operates in detail is still unknown. 98% of the Crabeater Seal's food consists of Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba. Antarctic krill ( Euphausia superba) is a Species of Krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. The seals consume over 80 million tons of krill each year. They live and reproduce in the pack ice zone around Antarctica.

Behavior

Explorer and naturalist E.A. Wilson, who accompanied British explorer Robert Falcon Scott on the 1910-1913 Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, recorded that the Crabeater seal will, when close to death, leave the pack and travel far up glaciers to die. Dr Edward Adrian Wilson ("Uncle Bill" ( 23 July 1872 &ndash 29 March 1912) was a notable English polar explorer The Terra Nova Expedition (1910&ndash1913 officially the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 was led by Robert Falcon Scott who had previously commanded the Discovery He observed Crabeater carcasses on a number of occasions, "thirty miles from the sea-shore and 3,000 feet (910 m) above sea-level". ^[4]

References

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