Seals have special muscles to open and close their nostrils, important during diving. They can also slow their metabolism and heart rate during dives to conserve energy and air, and their lungs and blood vessels are especially efficient in absorbing oxygen. Crabeater seals are found throughout Antarctica. The strong jaws and highly developed teeth of leopard seals allow them to feed on crabeater pups and penguins, in addition to krill. Their name comes from their spotted coat.
Males are smaller.
Leopard seals hunt and travel alone on the northern edge of the pack ice, but very little data has been collected on their breeding habits. Rarest of the Antarctic seals, Ross seals are the least documented of Antarctic seals because they are so infrequently spotted. Their numbers remain unknown. Ross seals have a short snout, big eyes, long flippers, and hooked teeth. They are the smallest of the five species of true seals in the Antarctic.