Weddell Seal’s Family
Before we look at the seal’s family, take a closer look at your family. Do you have brothers or sisters? Parents or grandparents? Aunts or uncles? What about cousins? If so, have you noticed things you have common? You might have similar eyes, nose, hair color, etc. You may also have similar likes, dislikes or mannerisms. But in other ways, you are probably very different! The same is true with the Weddell seal’s family. Let’s take a closer look at their family members and see how they are alike and different!
This journal is brought to you by…
This journal is brought to you by…
- Mrs. Sweatt’s kindergarten class at St. Anne Highland
- Ms. Hammons 6th grade (block 4) at Lausanne Collegiate School
- Kindergarten classes at Crosswind Elementary
- Ms. Allen and Ms. Michaud’s 3rd grade classes at Germantown Elementary
- Ms. Porter’s 2nd grade class at Greenbrook Elementary
- Lynleigh Carroll from Missouri
- April Suryaram in 1st grade at Crosswind Elementary
- Lester Community Center
It’s all in the family
The big family that Weddell seals belong to is the pinniped suborder. What’s a pinniped, you ask? That’s a great question. Pinnipeds are marine mammals that can live on land and in water. Some of their closest relatives that aren’t pinnipeds are bears and weasles. Pinniped means ‘fin-’ or ‘feather-’ footed, referring to their flippers.
There are three types of pinnipeds or three families in the suborder Pinnipedia.
- Phocids – true seals, like the Weddell seal
- Otariids – also called ‘eared seals,’ include sea lions and fur seals
- Odobenids – the only member of this family is the walrus
Meet the pinniped family... well, the pinniped suborder. Photo credit: Lindsey Newton.
What do pinnipeds have in common?
- They are all mammals, which means they are warm-blooded, have live birth (there is one mammal family that lays eggs, but all the rest give live birth), nurse their young, breath air and have hair.
- They are carnivores, which means they eat only other animals. What kind of meat do Weddells eat?
- They have webbed flippers, used for swimming and sometimes for moving on land. They have two flippers in front (fore flippers) and two in back (hind flippers).
What’s different about pinnipeds?
It’s pretty easy to see the difference between a walrus and seal. Neither seals nor sea lions have huge tusks! But that wasn’t always the case, the walrus family used to be much more diverse, and many walrus didn't have tusks!
Look at those tusks! This guy is easy to recognize. Photo credit: Bill Curtsinger, National Geographic.
It’s a little trickier telling the difference between a sea lion and a seal.
Check out this chart below to see how they differ.
What is the difference between a seal and a sea lion? Use this chart to help you identify between the two.
Now that you know the difference, look at the drawing below. Which drawing is a seal and which is a sea lion?
Is it a seal or sea lion? Can you tell the difference? Credit: Dolphin Encounters.
If you said the seal is on the right, you would be correct!
What’s in a name?
You can’t always rely on their names to tell the difference. Take a look at this Antarctic fur seal and this crabeater seal. They both have ‘seal’ in their name but one is a phocid, or true seal, and the other is an otariid, or eared seal. Which one is which?
Compare the two and send your answer to me in the ‘Ask the Team’ section.
This is an Antarctic fur seal. Is it a phocid or otariid?
Photo Credit: http://www.taenos.com/
This is a Crabeater seal. Is it a phocid or otariid? Photo Credit: Alex Eilers.
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