Diet

• Penguins form the bulk of a leopard seals' diet, with species such as the Adelie, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguin most at risk of becoming a meal. Other aquatic creatures that a leopard seal will eat include fish, krill and squid. The leopard seal is the sole seal species that will kill and eat other seals in its Antarctic ecosystem.
  
  

Function

• The leopard seal can be 12 feet long and attain a weight of around 1,000 lbs. The animal has a large head in proportion to its body and its teeth possess a shape that allows the seal to strain the krill it captures from the seawater they take into their mouth. The incisors and canine teeth are sharp enough to hold and rend flesh. Leopard seals have excellent vision and a keen sense of smell that helps them to locate and track down potential prey.
  
  

Penguins

• The leopard seal will lurk in the shallows near a penguin breeding ground, hoping for the opportunity to capture and eat the young penguins that are getting their initial exposure to the water. Leopard seals kill a penguin by grabbing it with their strong jaws by the feet and then flailing the helpless bird against the water. This actually serves to kill the penguin and then skins it as well so the seal can eat it. The Adelie penguin is a favorite meal of a leopard seal and one that the seal can finish in as little as four minutes.
  
  

Danger to People

• The National Geographic website tells of how a leopard seal pursued a member of the famous Shackleton exploratory expedition early in the 1900s. The seal charged after the person on top of the ice and then tried to ambush him from below while underwater before another member of the outfit shot and killed it. A leopard seal drowned a marine biologist in 2003 but did not attempt to eat her.
  
  

Considerations

• As fearsome as a leopard seal is, it is no match for its only predator in the wild---the killer whale. The Antarctic Connection website estimates that a quarter million leopard seals exist in the southern seas. The crabeater seal is the species of seal that the leopard seal most often kills and eats, although it will stalk and consume fur seal pups.