sea lions, Otaria flavescens, Tierra del Fuego
The Great Marine Mammals
Different specimens of whales, dolphines, seals and other mammals
are to be found in all the Oceans around the world,
as well as in lakes and rivers. However, there are few places you
can see them in such great numbers. The most areas with high
biological activity is where warm and cold sea-currents meet. This
is the case in Scotia Sea, where the icecold water from Antarctica
is mixed with the more warmer water in the Atlantic Ocean.
Some of the best places for viewing marine mammals are located
around South America, from Ecuador
and the Amazon
in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the
of Chilean Channels, left to right: dusky, Lagenorhynchus
obscurus, (2 photos), hourglass, L. cruciger, black,
Cephalorhynchus eutropia, Peale's, L. australis,
Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego.
right whale Caperea marginata
is one of the world's
This is probably the only
photo in the wild.
The Chilean Channels, a vast labyrinth of
islands and fjords stretching from Puerto Montt to Tierra
del Fuego, is the best place to see some endemic cetaceans
such as black dolphin (above), and porpoises (Phocoena spinipinnis,
Both whales and dolphines belongs to the cetaceans.
The workd has both greece and latin origins,
and greske og latinske røtter,and means simply
to Taini og Mari
Lagenorhynchus australis is oneof the two most
common species of
the Chilean Channels
(the other being bottlenose dolphin.
dolphin, Tursiops truncatus - Overview
BBC Natural History Unit
Otaria flavescens or Otaria byronia
and , Otaria flavescens
and imperial shags, Phalacrocorax atriceps,
Southern elephant seals
| On the
Atlantic side of South America, Valdez Peninsula is the most
popular place to look for marine mammals.
Southern right whales, Balaena australis,
Southern elephant seals and killer whales can be seen here
Southern elephant seals, Mirounga leonina
Grytviken, South Georgia.
The Antarctic is one of the best places to see wildlife,
especially marine mammals and seabirds.
Unfortunately, it is also very expensive to get to, so let us continue
our journey here on the web.
elephant seals, Grytviken, South Georgia.
Gold Harbour, South Georgia.
South Georgia is the most scenic of the
Subantarctic islands, and it has the largest numbers of wildlife.
In summer, 300,000 Southern elephant seals and two million
Antarctic fur seals, Arctocephalus gazella, gather
Grytviken, South Georgia.
|The Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) is one
of eight seals in the genus Arctocephalus, and one of nine fur
seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. As its name suggests,
the Antarctic fur seal is distributed in Antarctic waters. Around
95% of the world population breeds at the Island of South Georgia.
It is named for the German naval vessel, the corvette SMS Gazelle,
which collected the first specimen from Kerguelen Island. The
species is also known as the Kerguelen fur seal.
This fur seal has a short and broad snout compared with others
in the family. Adult males are dark brown in colour. Females
and juveniles tend to be grey with a lighter undersides. Colour
patterns are highly variable, and some scientists believe some
hybridisation with subantarctic fur seals has occurred. Pups
are dark brown, nearly black at birth.
About one in 1000 Antarctic fur seals are pale 'blonde' variants.
Males are substantially bigger than females. Antarctic fur seals
grow 2 m (6.5 ft) long and weigh 91 kg (200 lb)
to 209 kg (460 lb). Males live for about 15 years and females
up to 25.
fur seals, Grytviken, South Georgia
Antarctic fur seals, Elsehul, South Georgia
Antarctic fur seals,
Grytviken, South Georgia.
Antarctic fur seal,
Elsehul, South Georgia.
fur seals are very
off South Georgia.
Whales are abundant in summer around South Georgia, as well
as along the coasts further south, all the way to the edge
of pack ice and sometimes even further. As usual, humpbacks
are the most fun to watch.
off South Georgia
Megaptera novaeangliae (NOAA)
The humpback whale,
Megaptera novaeangliae, is a species
of baleen whale
One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length
from 1216 metres (3952 ft) and weigh approximately
36,000 kilograms (79,000 lb). The humpback has a distinctive
body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly
head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping
the water. Males produce a complex song, which lasts for 10
to 20 minutes and is repeated for hours at a time. The purpose
of the song is not yet clear, although it appears to have
a role in mating.
Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales
typically migrate up to 25,000
kilometres (16,000 mi) each year. Humpbacks feed only in summer,
in polar waters, and migrate to tropical or sub-tropical waters
to breed and give birth in the winter. During the winter,
humpbacks fast and live off their fat reserves. The species'
diet consists mostly of krill and small fish. Humpbacks have
a diverse repertoire of feeding methods, including the bubble
net feeding technique.
Balaenoptera borealis, off Elephant Island,
South Shetland Islands.
minke is the most numerous species. Fin-, Balaenoptera
and blue-, Balaenoptera musculus,
whales also make it all the way south.
Sei whales, Balaenoptera borealis,
occur no further than South Shetland Is, where all four can
be seen together.
minke whale, Balaenopter bonairensis,
off Coronation Island,
South Orkney Islands.l
Whale from the air.
Photo: Protected Resouces Division, Southwest Fisheries
Science Center, La Jolla, California. swfsc.nmfs.noaa.gov/PRD/"
The fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus
, also called
the finback whale, razorback, or common rorqual, is a marine
mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen
. It is the second longest whale and the sixth
animal after the blue whale, bowhead whale, and right whales,
growing to nearly 27 metres (88 ft) long.
The American naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews called the fin
whale "the greyhound of the sea" because of its
great speed when chased and slender build.
Long and slender, the fin whale's body is brownish-grey with
a paler underside. There are at least two distinct subspecies:
the Northern fin whale of the North Atlantic, Balaenoptera
physalus physalus ,
and the larger
Antarctic fin whale of the Southern Ocean, Balaenoptera
Photo: Fred Benko - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) Central Library.
The blue whale
(Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine
mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen
(called Mysticeti). At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 180
metric tons (200 short tons) or more in weight,
it is the largest known animal to have ever existed.
Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades
of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath.
There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus
of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia
of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as
the pygmy blue whale) found in
the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found
in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies.
As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively
of small crustaceans known as krill.
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth
until the beginning of the twentieth century.......
whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
NMFS SWFSC PRD
The sei whale
, Balaenoptera borealis
, is a baleen
, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale
and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas,
and prefers deep offshore waters. It avoids polar and tropical
waters and semi-enclosed bodies of water. The sei whale migrates
annually from cool and subpolar waters in summer to winter
in temperate and subtropical waters.
Reaching 20 metres (66 ft) long and weighing as much as 28
tonnes (28 long tons; 31 short tons), the sei whale
daily consumes an average of 900 kilograms (2,000 lb) of food,
primarily copepods, krill, and other zooplankton.
It is among the fastest of all cetaceans, and can reach speeds
of up to 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) (27 knots)
over short distances. The whale's name comes from the Norwegian
word for pollock, a fish that appears off the coast of Norway
at the same time of the year as the sei whale
right whale, Peninsula Valdés, Patagonia, Argentina)
Photo: Michaël Catanzariti
The southern right whale
(Eubalaena australis) is a
one of three species classified as right whales belonging
to the genus Eubalaena. Like other right whales, the southern
right whale is readily distinguished from
others by the callosities on its head, a broad back without
a dorsal fin, and a long arching mouth that begins above
the eye. Its skin is very dark grey or black, occasionally
with some white patches on the belly.
The right whale's callosities appear white due to large colonies
of cyamids (whale lice). It is almost indistinguishable from
the closely related North Atlantic and the North Pacific right
whales, displaying only minor skull differences.
It may have fewer callosities on its head and more on its
lower lips than the two northern species.
Approximately 10,000 southern right whales are spread throughout
the southern part of the Southern Hemisphere.
The maximum size of an adult female is 15 m (49 ft) and
can weigh up to 47 tonnes (46 long tons; 52 short tons).
Right whales cannot cross the warm equatorial waters to connect
with the other (sub)species and (inter)breed: their thick
layers of insulating blubber make it impossible for them to
dissipate their internal body heat in tropical waters.
seals, Hope Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.
Weddell Seal in Adélie
The Weddell seal, Leptonychotes weddellii
, is a
relatively large and abundant true seal (family: Phocidae)
with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. Weddell
seals have the most southerly distribution of any mammal,
with a habitat that extends as far south as McMurdo Sound
(at 77°S). It is the only species in the genus Leptonychotes,
and the only member of the Antarctic tribe of lobodontine
seals to prefer in-shore habitats on shore-fast ice over free-floating
pack ice. Because of its abundance, relative accessibility,
and ease of approach by humans, it is the best
studied of the Antarctic seals. It is estimated that there
are approximately 800,000 individuals today.
Weddell Seal pups leave their mothers at the age of a few
months. In those months they get fed by their mothers fat
and warming milk. They soon leave when they are ready to hunt
and are fat enough to survive in the harsh weather
The Weddell seal was discovered and named in the 1820s during
expeditions led by James Weddell, the British
sealing captain, to the parts of the Southern Ocean now known
as the Weddell Sea.However, it is found in
relatively uniform densities around the entire Antarctic continent.
seal (Lobodon carcinophagus), Hope Bay, Antarctic Peninsula.
carcinophagus, Crabeater Seal
Mammal Laboratory - http://nmml.afsc.noaa.gov
The crabeater seal
, Lobodon carcinophagus
, is a
true seal with a circumpolar distribution around the coast
of Antarctica. They are medium to large-sized (over 2 m in
length), relatively slender and pale-colored, found primarily
on the free floating pack ice that extends seasonally out
from the Antarctic coast, which they use as a platform for
resting, mating, social aggregation and accessing their prey.
They are by far the most abundant seal species in the world.
While population estimates are uncertain, there are at
least 7 million and possibly as many as 75 million individuals.
This success of this species is due to its specialized predation
on the abundant Antarctic krill of the Southern Ocean, for
which it has uniquely adapted sieve-like tooth structure.
Indeed, its scientific name, translated as "lobe-toothed
(lobodon) crab eater (carcinophagus)", refers specifically
to the finely-lobed teeth adapted to filtering their small
crustacean prey. As well as an important krill predator, the
crabeater seal is an important component of the diet of leopard
seals, Hydrurga leptonyx
which consume about 80% of all crabeater pups.
off Antarctic Peninsula.
Crabeater seal is the most numerous mammal in the Antarctic,
but it prefers pack ice.
Ross' seal, Ommatophoca rossi, sticks
to even heavier ice, and is rarely seen. Leopard seal, a common
sight in the vicinity of penguin colonies, feeds mostly on
kryll, but don't get too close.
Blue whale, off
Elephant I, S. Shetland Is.
End of Scotia Sea Adventure.
seal, Hydrurga leptonyx
The 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
most common in the southern hemisphere along the coast of
Antarctica and on most sub-Antarctic islands, but can also
be found on the coasts of southern Australia, Tasmania, South
Africa, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Tierra del Fuego, the
Cook Islands, and the Atlantic coast of South America.
It can live twenty-six years, possibly more. Orcas and large
sharks are the only natural predators of leopard seals.
Along with all of the other earless seals, it belongs to the
family Phocidae, and is the only species in the genus Hydrurga.
The name hydrurga means "water worker" and leptonyx
is the Greek for "small clawed".
The leopard seal is large and muscular, with a dark grey back
and light grey on its stomach. Its throat is whitish with
the black spots that give the seal its common name. The overall
length of this seal is 2.4-3.5 m (7.9-11.7 ft) and
weight is from 200 to 600 kilograms (440 to 1,300 lb).
The leopard seal's canine teeth are 2.5 cm (1 in).It feeds
on a wide variety of creatures. Smaller seals probably eat
mostly krill, but also squid and fish. Larger leopard seals
probably switch from krill to more substantial prey, including
king, adelie, rockhopper, gentoo and emperor penguins, and
less frequently, other seals such as the crabeater seal.
Around the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, the Antarctic
fur seal, Arctocephalus gazella, is the main prey.
Other prey includes penguins and fish. Antarctic krill, Euphausia
superba, southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina,
pups and seabirds other than penguins have also been found
in leopard seal scats in small quantities.
Back to Part 4.
pictures, unless otherwise stated, Copyright © Vladimir