User:Jeanpete/sandbox

Leopard seal reproduction

Since leopard seals live in an area that's difficult for humans to survive in, there isn't much known on their reproduction and breeding habits. However, it is known that their breeding system is polygynous, meaning males mate with multiple females during the mating period. Mating occurs from December - January, shortly after the pups are weaned when the female seal is in estrus. Most leopard seal breeding is done on pack ice.

Five research voyages were made to Antarctica in 1985, 1987 and 1997–1999 to look at leopard seals. They sighted seal pups from the beginning of November to the end of December, and noticed that there was about one pup for every three adults, and they also noticed that most of the adults were staying away from other adults during this season, and when they were seen in groups they weren't showing any signs of interaction.

Vocalization is thought to play an important role in breeding, since males are much more vocal around the time of breeding. Mating takes place in the water, and then the male leaves the female to care for the pup. The average gestation period is 274 days ,then after giving birth to a single pup (weighing about 66 pounds), the pup usually stays with the mother and nurses for a month before it is weaned off.

Research shows that on average, the aerobic dive limit for juvenile seals is around 7 minutes, which means that juvenile leopard seals don't eat krill during the winter months, which is a major part of older seals diets, since krill is found at deeper depths during this time. This might occasionally lead to co-operative hunting. Co-operative hunting of leopard seals on Antarctic fur seal pups has been witnessed, which could be a mother helping her older pup, or could also be female-male couple interactions, in order to increase their hunting productivity

Baikal seal foraging

According to a 2004 paper on the foraging tactics of baikal seals, during the summer nights these seals are known to have different foraging strategies during night time and during day time. During the day, these seals use visual clues to search for their prey, which is mainly fish, while during the night they use tactile clues to hunt crustaceans. Since it's brighter during the day, the seals are able to see much better in order to hunt for the fish. Since there's no light at night, they have to hunt with tactile cues. The crustaceans they hunt at night have a diel migration, so they come up into shallower waters during the night, and swim to deeper waters during the day to escape predators. These seals were observed to dive deeper during dawn and dusk in order to get to these crustaceans as they were swimming shallower and deeper, respectively.