Leopard Seal
Photo © Ingvild Riska
Photo © Ingvild Riska — CC BY 4.0 — Source: iNaturalist photo #607715414The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), also referred to as the sea leopard, is the second largest species of seal in the Antarctic (after the southern elephant seal). It is a top order predator, feeding on a wide range of prey including cephalopods, other pinnipeds, krill, fish, and birds, particularly penguins. Its only natural predator is the orca. It is the only species in the genus Hydrurga. Its closest relatives are the Ross seal, the crabeater seal, and the Weddell seal, which are all Antarctic seals of the tribe Lobodontini.
Royal National Park
Sydney, Australia
+296 birds+46 mammals
Where sandstone ridges plunge toward the Tasman Sea, Royal National Park unfolds across 343 square kilometres of southeastern Australian coastal wilderness. The park's defining character emerges…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKVolunteer Point
Stanley, Falkland Islands
+70 birds+3 mammals
Windswept grasslands meet volcanic black sand beaches where three penguin species converge in the South Atlantic's most theatrical wildlife theatre. This remote peninsula on East Falkland…
VIEW NATURE RESERVEWest Point Island
West Point, Falkland Islands
+67 birds+3 mammals
Windswept cliffs plunge dramatically into the South Atlantic, their rust-coloured rock faces sculpted by millennia of gales and spray. This northwestern outpost of the Falkland Islands…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGODeception Island
Gabriel de Castilla Base, Antarctica
+26 birds+10 mammals
Steaming geothermal vents pierce a landscape of blackened volcanic sand and ice, where the earth's raw power still trembles beneath your feet. This horseshoe-shaped caldera, flooded…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGOCuverville Island
Cuverville Island, Antarctica
+19 birds+10 mammals
Granite peaks and sculpted ice define this windswept archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula, where steep rocky shores plunge into waters thick with drifting brash ice. Cuverville…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGONeko Harbour
Neko Harbour, Antarctica
+18 birds+10 mammals
Towering peaks of fractured ice rise abruptly from gunmetal waters, their faces scarred by millennia of glacial advance and retreat. This pocket of the Antarctic Peninsula…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEParadise Bay
Brown Station, Antarctica
+18 birds+9 mammals
Where the Antarctic Peninsula's rugged coastline meets the Southern Ocean, Brown Station stands sentinel over Paradise Bay—a protected landscape of ice-carved inlets, towering glacial faces, and…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEBrown Bluff
Brown Bluff, Antarctica
+23 birds+9 mammals
Where rust-colored volcanic peaks pierce the Antarctic Peninsula's icy realm, a geologist's dreamscape unfolds beneath towering cliffs of iron oxide and ancient lava. Brown Bluff rises…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEPort Lockroy
Port Lockroy, Antarctica
+19 birds+9 mammals
Towering peaks of black rock pierce through Antarctic pack ice on the Gerlache Strait, where one of the continent's most accessible harbors cradles a living microcosm…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEHalf Moon Island
Cámara Base, Antarctica
+25 birds+8 mammals
Jagged volcanic peaks rise from the cobalt waters of the South Shetland Islands, their slopes carpeted in moss and lichen where hardy vegetation clings to windswept…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGOPetermann Island
Petermann Island, Antarctica
+16 birds+9 mammals
Icebound cliffs rise dramatically from the Bellingshausen Sea, their weathered faces sculpted by millennia of Antarctic wind and tide. This slender wedge of rock and ice,…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGOPaulet Island
Paulet Island, Antarctica
+20 birds+6 mammals
Windswept ice and weathered rock converge at this remote Antarctic outcrop, where jagged peaks pierce through perpetual pack ice and glacial moraines descend toward cobalt waters.…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGODanco Island
Danco Island, Antarctica
+17 birds+10 mammals
Dramatic black rock pierces the Antarctic Peninsula's icy waters, crowned with permanent snow and ringed by calving glaciers that thunder into the sea. This volcanic outcrop…
VIEW ISLAND & ARCHIPELAGOWilhelmina Bay
Wilhelmina Bay, Antarctica
+20 birds+10 mammals
Sheer cliffs of black volcanic rock plunge into waters so pristine they reflect the Antarctic sky like polished obsidian. This remote western Antarctic inlet, ringed by…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPELemaire Channel
Orne Harbour, Antarctica
+25 birds+13 mammals
Where granite peaks plunge into steel-grey waters, the Lemaire Channel carves one of Antarctica's most dramatic passages. This narrow strait, squeezed between the Antarctic Peninsula and…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPESalisbury Plain
South Georgia, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
+33 birds+4 mammals
Where tussock grasses bow to relentless Antarctic winds and glacial meltwater carves braided channels through obsidian volcanic soil, one of Earth's most remote wildlife sanctuaries reveals…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPESt. Andrews Bay
South Georgia, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
+34 birds+6 mammals
Where windswept tundra dissolves into obsidian beaches, one of the planet's most extraordinary wildlife theaters unfolds across St. Andrews Bay. This remote corner of South Georgia…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEFortuna Bay
Stromness, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
+37 birds+5 mammals
Where tussock grasslands sweep down to black-sand beaches and elephant seals haul out in thunderous colonies, the raw sub-Antarctic landscape reveals itself in its most dramatic…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPECooper Bay
Cooper Bay, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
+28 birds+5 mammals
Where black-sand beaches meet towering cliffs striped with cascading meltwater, one of the Southern Ocean's most dramatic amphitheaters reveals itself. Cooper Bay cuts a deep indent…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEElsehul Bay
Bird Island Station, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
+33 birds+4 mammals
Granite peaks rise sheer from the Southern Ocean, their weathered faces streaked with cascading meltwater and cloaked in tussock grass that bends beneath relentless winds. This…
VIEW PROTECTED LANDSCAPEBouddi National Park
Gosford, Australia
+147 birds+17 mammals
Sandstone ridges rise sharply from the Tasman Sea along the central New South Wales coast, their weathered faces etched by millennia of salt spray and storm…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKBen Boyd National Park
Eden, Australia
+255 birds+47 mammals
Where the temperate forests of the far south coast meet towering sea cliffs, Ben Boyd National Park unveils one of New South Wales' most dramatic coastal…
VIEW NATIONAL PARKGreat Otway National Park
Australia
+255 birds+42 mammals
Temperate rainforest and wet eucalyptus woodland cloak the ridges and gullies of Victoria's Great Otway National Park, where persistent moisture and mild year-round temperatures sustain a…
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No community observations of this species yet.