Elephant Seal
By Michael Wang
Description
Height: 2.6 to 3 m
Weight: Females - 400 to 900 kg. Males - 1200 to 2700 kg
Lifespan: Males -14 yr. Female - 22yrs
Diet: fish and squid
Preadator and Prey
These fabulous creatures migrate south to Antarctica after they either finished breeding or moulting to feed on squid and fish at the edge of the sea ice. They can dive over a depth of 1500 metres for up to two hours. They can do these these amazing things because of adaptations that they have developed.Even though the elephant seal is very powerful they still have predators like the killer whale, large sharks like the great white shark and the leopard seal eat their babies.
Adaptations
The elephant seal has a torpedo like body shape which helps them swim and dive extremely well. They have a huge amount of blood which stores oxygen they even have extra spaces called sinuses which is located at their abdomens. Also the elephant seal has a thick layer of blubber that sustains them in the breeding season as they don't eat.
Did you know?
1.Did you know that the largest recorded elephant seal weighed up to 5,000kg and measured 6.1m in length?
2.Did you know that some elephant seal has to stay on land to defend their territory which mean months of starvation.
3.Did you know that the elephant seal spends 80% or more of their life in the ocean?
World's Deadliest - Elephant Seal vs. Elephant Seal
Two elephant seals fighting
Breeding
Poulation
Conservation status: least concern
The elephant seal are doing just fine now but they had a low point point around 19 hundreds when sealers hunted them.
Habitat
When they are going to breed or moult they live in rocky islands shores and smooth sandy beaches.But for the rest of the year they spend it entirely at sea repenshing their layer of blubber.