Crabeater Seal

• GeneralIt is the most abundant seal on the planet, and its teeth strain krill, not crabs.
• Its molars have interlocking cusps that form a sieve: it closes its mouth and forces the water out between its teeth, keeping the krill, a solution convergent with the baleen of whales.
• There may be more than a million of these seals spread across the Antarctic pack ice, which makes it the most abundant seal in the world even though hardly anyone has seen one.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (mammal)

Habitat and environment

Drifting pack ice of the Southern Ocean, all around the Antarctic continent

Sexual maturity

4 years

Gestation / incubation

8.5 months

Litter / clutch size

1

Sources consulted: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ | https://animaldiversity.org/ | https://es.wikipedia.org/

The pins mark the parks and dive sites where its presence is documented.