Crabeater Seal (Lobodon carcinophaga)

The drill when we rode up near one of these animals in our zodiac was that they would wake up, snort at us, then go back to sleep. Antarctic "true" seals were never heavily hunted so they never really learned to fear us.



Crabeater seals are relatively common ranging anywhere from 14 – 70 million depending on who you ask. Some even say that - aside from humans - they are the most common large mammal on earth (amazing because I hadn't ever heard of them before this trip!).

They are light brown and turn paler with age. They feed on krill and can dive up to 530m staying underwater for 10 minutes though most simply stay under 4-5 minutes.

They often have deep scars on their backs and it is thought that these could be from attacks by killer whales or leopard seals but this is unusual because why don’t the other seals (like Ross or Weddell) have similar markings because they too are preyed upon. They are rather gregarious and can be seen in groups lounging on the ice.

Crabeaters are the most gregarious of the "ice loving" seals and are often found in small groups. Though they are called "Crabeaters" they don't eat any crabs but rather have specialized teeth for eating large amounts of krill.