#0484 · 🦊 mammals

Weddell Seal

🇳🇱 Weddellzeehond ·Leptonychotes weddellii

LCleast concern 🦊 Mammals 📍 outside Europe

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

The Weddell seal , Leptonychotes weddellii , is a relatively large and abundant true seal (family: Phocidae) with a circumpolar distribution surrounding Antarctica. Weddell seals have the most southerly distribution of any mammal, with a habitat that extends as far south as McMurdo Sound (at 77°S). It is the only species in the genus Leptonychotes , and the only member of the Antarctic tribe of lobodontine seals to prefer in-shore habitats on shore-fast ice over free-floating pack ice. Genetic...

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 1,938iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
1,938 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by René Lesson in 1826 (200 years ago).