Leopard seals are solitary animals that inhabit pack-ice surrounding the Antarctic continent. They are perhaps the greatest wanderers of the Antarctic seals with sightings in Tasmania and a northern record at Heron Island. Heron Island is a subtropical island in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef — quite some distance from the Antarctic!
They may occupy some sub-Antarctic islands year-round including Heard Island. In the winter months, young leopard seals from the south visit Macquarie Island.
The only natural predator of leopard seals is the killer whale. An observation of a male elephant seal having killed a leopard seal at Heard Island has been reported, however, this is likely to be an uncommon occurrence.
Our researchers are interested in the factors that drive the cyclic nature of the occurrence of leopard seals at Macquarie Island and Tasmania, and are studying seal movements within the pack-ice zone.
Leopard seals eat almost anything, including penguins, fish, squid, and crustaceans. Like the crabeater seals, leopard seals have unusual teeth for straining krill from the water. They also eat the pups of other seal species including crabeater, Weddell and southern fur seals. One leopard seal, captured near Sydney, had eaten a fully grown platypus.
Typically leopard seals chase or grab penguins in the water and thrash the captured bird back and forth until the skin peels away. The remaining carcass is then consumed.
Leopard seals have very individual tastes. Some remain near penguin colonies to capture prey, while others prefer to eat crabeater seal pups. Other leopard seals prefer a sub-Antarctic menu migrating north to Heard Island to feed on penguin and seal pups there.
Credit : Australian Antarctic Program
Picture Credit : Google
