Crabeater Seal

The crabeater seal, also called the krill-eater seal, is a true seal with a circumpolar distribution around the Antarctic coast and the sole member of the genus Lobodon. Medium to large in size, slender and pale in color, it rests, mates and hunts primarily from the free-floating pack ice that seasonally extends out from Antarctica, and it is by far the most abundant seal species in the world, with population estimates ranging from at least 7 million to as many as 75 million individuals. Its success rests on finely lobed, sieve-like teeth specialized for filtering the Antarctic krill that make up almost its entire diet.