MAMMALS
The Mammals that are found in the Antarctic are those of the group of seals and the cetaceans.
Seals: the true seals are of regular size and they have their back limbs inside the body, except for the tarsus.
They lack ears and they are always in the water. They leave the water only to sleep or breed.
Of the eared family we must mention the fur seal, which isnīt actually a true seal because it has ears.
Among the true seals there are:
Weddel seal: of dark grey coat with yellowish stains. It measures more than 3 m and it can weigh 300-400 kg.
Crabeater Seal: of yellowish white coat, it measures about 3 m and weighs 200-250 kg.
Ross Seal: of dark grey coat with clear parts in the chest and neck. It is not bigger than 2 m and it is very rare.
Leopard Seal: of a dark grey coat with silver and yellowish spots, it measures more than 4 m, and the female is smaller.
Elephant Seal: it has sexual dimorphism, the male can be 7 m long while the female doesnīt reach 3 m. Its skin is thick and brown. The male inflates the muzzle at will, looking like a small trumpet, to which it owes its name. It has polygamic habits.
Cetaceans: they are mammals of lung breathing, totally adapted to the aquatic habitat, outside which they cannot live because their weight presses their thorax preventing them from breathing.
In their adaptations they have lost their back limbs, keeping the front ones, which they use as fins. They have also lost the coat; they only have some bristles in the face. Under the skin they have a layer of fat of 15 cm or more which they use as thermal insulation and as reserves for mating time and breeding which is made in warmer seas where the food is not plentiful. They can keep 30 minutes or more without breathing. When its enormous head emerges from the water they exhale the heated air by two nasal holes. This hot air, loaded with vapour, is like a jet of water that is seen from the distance. The gestation in some species lasts 16 months and the young can measure the third of the size of the parents. The cetaceans are divided according to their mouths: there are whales without teeth or bearded whales. The first ones lack teeth; they have some curious formations implanted in the palate which serve them as a filter to obtain the krill, they feed exclusively on them. Whales with as much as 2 tons of krill in their stomach have been found.
The most common species among the bearded ones are the blue whales, the fin whale, the humpback whale, the pigmy right whale, and the little piked whale.
The blue whale is the biggest of them all, and it is the biggest animal that ever lived on Earth. Among toothed whales, there are the sperm whale and the Orca whale, which eats penguins, seals, and other whales.
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