Up to 50 percent of a seal’s weight can come from its blubber reserves. Pinnipeds also rely on a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm. Elephant seals and Walruses can weigh up to 4 tons, and even the smallest seals are notably rotund.
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In general, marine mammals are larger than mammals on land, an adaptation that minimizes the area of skin in contact with the water. Pinnipeds have devised several ways to combat the cold. Water absorbs heat 25 times faster than air, and for warm blooded animals like pinnipeds this means that they need an efficient way to retain heat. Pinniped kidneys are especially efficient at retaining water, therefore, pinniped urine can be saltier than the surrounding seawater. Once the food is ingested, pinnipeds retain the water for as long as possible. Most freshwater comes from a pinniped’s meal-Harbor seals obtain about 90 percent of their freshwater from the fish they eat. Special adaptations help them retain as much freshwater as possible. Pinnipeds that live in the sea must rely on freshwater to survive. Although they may seem clumsy, seals are quite speedy and can travel fast enough on land to overtake a human. Traveling requires the back and forth shift of weight from their upper body to their pelvic region, almost like a caterpillar. Seals, however, cannot do this and instead shimmy on their bellies. This enables their agile movement and balance on land. Sea lions, fur seals, and walruses are able to rotate their rear flippers up and under their bodies so that they can waddle on all four flippers. On land, seals and sea lions also have different methods for getting around. With every breath they obtain about 90 percent of the oxygen inhaled-humans only capture 20 percent. Upon surfacing, it takes seconds for pinnipeds to resupply their bodies with oxygen. Not only do seals use hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying molecules in human blood, they also have a second molecule in their muscle tissue called myoglobin that also carries oxygen. Seals also have about twice as much blood as humans when body size is considered, and their blood can carry about three times the amount of oxygen as human blood. When resting, a seal’s heart will beat at about 100 beats per minute, but when diving it can slow to as low as five beats per minute. They accomplish this by both decreasing their heart rate to below resting state and by constricting their peripheral blood vessels to keep blood near important organs. The Southern elephant seal has been recorded at 2,388 m, a dive that lasted for two hours, though on average their dives are around 20 to 30 minutes at a depth of 270 to 550 meters. When at sea, northern elephant seals spend 85 to 95 percent of that time underwater and make massive migrations up to 13,000 miles long.ĭiving is part of life for pinnipeds, and even for sea creatures they are impressive divers. Seals, too, have key adaptations that make them efficient swimmers, like lots of blubber to make them buoyant. This technique is likely used to increase their speed, since air resistance is significantly less than the drag of water.
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As the sea lion dashes across the sea surface it breaches the surface in a series of consecutive leaps. When traveling long distances, sea lions are known to employ a swimming technique called porpoising. Most pinnipeds cruise at speeds around 5 to 15 knots, though sea lions sometimes reach bursts up to 30 knots. By using their front flippers, sea lions are easily the fastest group of pinnipeds. Instead, the sea lion tail is used like a rudder. Seals, walruses, whales, otters, and others rely on the back end of their bodies-their tail-to produce thrust. Scientists refer to this motion as a “clap.” Sea lions are the only aquatic mammals that swim this way. In a sweeping motion, they stretch their long flippers out to the side and then quickly tuck them into their body to form a torpedo-like shape. For the sea lion, swimming is all about the front flippers. Some species spend the majority of their life in the ocean-female northern elephant seals spend 66 percent of their time in the open ocean.ĭespite looking similar, seals and sea lions propel themselves through the water in different ways. Though able to move on both land and sea, pinnipeds are the most efficient underwater. Unlike whales and dolphins, sea lions have extremely flexible bodies, and can almost bend their bodies in half. They’ve also developed powerful flippers to propel and steer themselves through the water. Pinnipeds have adapted sleek, torpedo-shaped bodies that can cut through the water without producing significant drag. Life at sea requires a powerful and streamlined body. Arctic Food Webs Seals and Ice Anatomy, Diversity, and Evolution
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