Seals

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This crabeater seal above doesn’t eat crabs, but instead strains krill out of the water. Other seals hunt fish or squid. (Photo courtesy of Larry Madin, WHOI)

Seals are some of the largest predators in the Antarctic. They were hunted heavily after Antarctica was discovered and in the first half of the nineteenth century, reducing their numbers to very few. Many of the Antarctic seal species have become more abundant again. Leopard seals are aggressive and ferocious predators, and hunt penguins.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia

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