What is leopard seal adaptations?

Answer 1

Whiskers feel for fish in darkness:
Seals can bring their whiskers forward when they need to feel for fish in the darkness of deep or murky waters. A seal's sensitive whiskers can feel the slight changes in water currents around them when fish are swimming in schools.

A body for swimming:
The seal has a body perfectly adapted for life in the water. Their body is shaped to go through the water with a minimum of resistance. This is called "streamlining". The flippers of seals propel them through the water. Fur Seals and Sea Lions use their front flippers like wings to 'fly' through the water.

Fur for warmth:
Fur Seals have two layers of fur. One is short, fine and forms a very warm layer closest to the seal's body. The other hair is a much longer 'guard hair' which forms an outer waterproof layer. These two layers of fur would be like us wearing a jumper under a wetsuit when we go swimming. Sea Lions have a coat with only one layer. There is very little under-layer of finer hairs.

'Keeping Cool' - Thermoregulation:
Fur Seals often need to cool down, as their coats are so effective at heat insulation. They do this by 'sailing'. The seal's hairless flippers have a lot of blood vessels running through them. One flipper can be held out of the water so the wind passes over its surface. The evaporation of the water from the wet flipper cools the flipper and the blood flowing through it. Seals do this when they need to regulate their body temperature. It is called "thermoregulation".

Keeping a look-out:
Looking directly backward is a behaviour used by male seals to keep watch over their territory of rock platforms and rockpools. This way they can see all around and behind. During the breeding season, the larger male seals become protective of a territory (and the females within it). They need to keep a close watch on all parts of their territory so no rival males can steal the favourable rock pools or any female seals.

Seals have slits for nostrils that naturally close under water - and they shut even tighter with increased water pressure. This feature works better than those attractive nose clips we humans wear in diving class. And speaking of diving, seals can hold their breath for a very long time… up to two hours for elephant seals. Because of a custom-designed mouth and larynx, they can even eat while underwater without sucking sea water!

Ever notice how big a seal's eyes are? That's another underwater adaptation. Seals have flattened corneas and pupils that can open wide to let in light while swimming. Unlike land animals, a seal's eyes consist only of rods (sensory cells) that work great in low light, plus they don't have cones (other sensory cells) to detect color. In water, a seal's eye lens sends an image directly to the back of the eyeball. Land mammals use their lens for focusing only. Though seals have retinas like land animals do, they don't have the curved eye surface to refract light and project an image onto the retina at the back of the eyeball.

Blubber helps insulate seals in polar conditions. True seals rely on blubber more than fur seals do because true seals live a more aquatic life. Fur seals depend more on their special under-fur that is waterproof and helps regulate their body temperature.

Blubber helps insulate seals in polar conditions. True seals rely on blubber more than fur seals do because true seals live a more aquatic life. Fur seals depend more on their special under-fur that is waterproof and helps regulate their body temperature.

Seals don't take a huge breath like humans do before jumping in, but they do hyperventilate before a dive. They store the oxygen in their blood and muscles and expel the air. Seals have more blood than land animals of a similar size, plus more hemoglobin to carry oxygen. That means a seal can carry a lot more oxygen for its body weight.

Seals have other special diving adaptations, such as a reduced heart rate (from 60-70 bpm to 15 bpm) during a long dive. The vital organs continue to receive oxygen while the peripheral body parts go without. If a seal runs out of O2, it then converts glucose to lactic acid through a process called glycosis. Weddells and other true seals even have extra-big spleens to store red blood cells that are released later during a dive.

Back on shore, seals enjoy a dive recovery time that's around twice as long as their actual dive time. During recovery, the seal's heart rate returns to normal and its body gets rid of the lactic acid.

True (earless) seals aren't quite as adept at the running part, since their tails are more adapted to swimming. As in water, they undulate their hindquarters on land. They also hump their body up with their flippers to cover ground surprisingly quickly. Ice-dwelling true seals have longer claws that help them grip slippery surfaces.

In response to the cold Antarctic temperatures, a seal's blood vessels constrict and cut off the warm blood sent to skin that touches the ice surface. That means a seal's skin gets very cold (close to freezing). This fridge-friendly feature means that the seal's blubber can insulate the animal's internal organs without fighting to keep the exposed skin warm. All the energy is used to protect the seal's critical parts and pieces, like its heart and brain. A seal's core body temperature is around 38 degrees C (100 degrees F).

Seals also use Antarctica's solar energy to heat up… which can be a bad thing on warm days! They can quickly overheat when moving from the cold ocean to Antarctica's solar panel of ice and snow.

To keep from over-heating, seals have a built-in cooler in the form of an alternative blood flow system. In simple terms, mammals use arteries to take blood from the heart to arterioles and the capillary bed. Blood then travels through venules to veins that return the blood to the lungs, where it's re-oxygenated.

Seals can skip the capillary bed entirely. They can dilate special blood vessels that are near the surface of the skin and bypass the capillary bed, which lets warm blood reach the surface quickly to disperse heat into the environment. That same process also lets seals return cooled blood to their internal body for more heat extraction… and back to the surface for more cooling, and so on.