Food Chain

What Eats a Seal?

A Seal Mother And Pup. Photo: CaliforniaCat0001
A Seal Mother And Pup. Photo: CaliforniaCat0001

What eats a seal? What do seals eat?

There are more than 30 species of seals, and they live in seas and oceans all over the world, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Most seals chase down and eat finfish, but some species eat crustaceans or other shellfish. The walrus—one of the largest members of the seal family—eats bivalves. The huge and ferocious leopard seal likes to eat penguins.

As for what eats them, there are plenty of larger animals that like to dine on seals. The orca, or killer whale, is one of their major predators, and so are the larger shark species, especially the great white shark.

Polar bears are another major seal predator. In arctic waters polar bears stalk seals on large ice floes.




Gordon Ramel

Gordon is an ecologist with two degrees from Exeter University. He's also a teacher, a poet and the owner of 1,152 books. Oh - and he wrote this website.
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