Mammals
Weddell Seal
Leptonychotes weddellii · also called Weddell seals
Resting calmly beside a carefully maintained breathing hole in the Antarctic fast ice, a Weddell seal shows visible wear on its front teeth, the cumulative cost of years spent scraping through ice thick enough to trap almost any other marine mammal below the surface.
Overview
The Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii, is a deep-diving, cold-tolerant seal native to fast ice and coastal waters surrounding the Antarctic continent, remaining in the region year-round. Its extraordinary diving depth and duration, status as the southernmost-breeding mammal on Earth, and self-damaging ice-scraping behaviour make it one of the more physically extreme and scientifically fascinating marine mammals found anywhere in the world.
A life measured in ice and depth
Few mammals push the limits of both cold tolerance and diving ability as far as the Weddell seal, a species that breeds further south than anything else alive and dives deep enough to rival some of the most capable divers in the animal kingdom.
Status
Least Concern, widespread and stable across suitable fast ice habitat surrounding the Antarctic continent.
Weddell Seal: common questions
How deep can a Weddell seal dive?
This species can dive below 600 metres and remain submerged for over an hour at a time, among the most impressive diving performances documented in any seal species, allowing it to hunt fish and squid in the deep, dark waters beneath Antarctic ice.
Why is the Weddell seal called the southernmost-breeding mammal?
This species breeds farther south than any other mammal on Earth, maintaining stable breathing holes and colonies directly on the fast ice attached to the Antarctic continent itself, a habitat far more extreme than where most other mammal species reproduce.
Why does the Weddell seal wear down its teeth?
This species uses its front teeth to scrape and maintain breathing holes through thick Antarctic ice, a necessary but gradually damaging behaviour that wears the teeth down over an individual's lifetime and can eventually limit how long the seal survives.
Is the Weddell seal dangerous to approach?
No, this species is generally calm and approachable on land compared with some other seal species, a docile temperament that has made it a frequently studied and relatively easy subject for researchers working in the harsh Antarctic environment.