I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Crystal Sound critters

My ability to distinguish one species of seal from another is still pretty rudimentary, but I'm confident that these are crabeaters. I do know that Weddell seals and leopard seals have spots (and leopard seals have a weird upturned smiling mouth -- like crocodiles, and just as inappropriate) and crabeaters tend to be pale.

But crabeaters are also by far the most abundant seal species in the Antarctic, and since they love to lounge around on icebergs and floes, they're easy to spot. If you see them up close, most crabeaters that have survived to adulthood also have visible scars from leopard seal attacks when they were pups.

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