Not every animal can stand the freezing cold water of the Antarctic, but the seals of Antarctica can because of its 2-4 inches of thick blubber. They stay by shore and live close to packs of ice. The pups are even born on ice during April or May. Even though they live in water they still can't stay under water for their whole lifetime, so they come up out of water every 2 minutes. The seals of Antarctica look like a manatee but they have a big snout. Its size is a little smaller than a dolphin. The seals can be gray, brown, or black.

But seals of Antarctica eat shrimp, crab, clams, snails, cod, and even penguin pups. They can eat 10 pounds a day but they can hardly even taste it because they don't have any taste buds.The seals' whiskers are called vibrassae and they help the seals find prey. Since the seals eat so much, the male can weigh up to 250 pounds.

The scientists have found out many things about Antarctic seals. One of the interesting facts is that the seals put their flippers to their sides to help steer. Another fact is that seal scat, which is their waste matter, helps scientists research. Scientists can also sell them to other research companies. The seal may weigh a lot, but it can swim up to 11 miles per hour. When they're swimming they have to close their ears so water doesn't go into their body. One of the interesting ways that scientists study seals is by putting a camera on the seal's back to find out what they do under water.

The number of leopard seals has dropped by 80 percent. The scientists don't know why this is happening but they are working on finding out what happened.

The seals in Antarctica are very interesting to me and can be interesting to you.