Idea #334 – Observing the otters and seals of the Isle of Skye
The seal and the otters are often confused marine mammals. They possess both a slender body, to the ex-members developed in fins, to the round head and wide-eyed black. To differentiate a seal of a sea lion, the ear is a first good criterion: the seal does not possess a detached flag at the level of the ear. Except the water, the body of the sea lion can recover on the previous long and powerful fins, unlike the seal. Whereas the sea lion walks and jumps up on all fours on earth, what allows it a certain ease and a speed of movement, the seal crawls.
Both animals also have in the water a different way of moving. Of course they swim, but the seal trots thanks to its posterior fins in a movement equivalent to that of the frog or by a wave motion. On the contrary, the sea lion uses its big fins pectoral as rowings and its fins posterior as rudder. Finally, in the wild state, their geographical distribution varies: we find the seal in moderate and subarctic waters while the sea lion lives generally near the southern seas and the Pacific, except the fur seal, which lives in the Arctic and subarctic zones. The fur seal is very different from common sea lions and looks like the seal a lot.
That is what does not thus facilitate the task! The adults are brown, tinged with yellow ash. The young people have the black back, ears are short, the big eyes and the rather hurt body. The snout is stretched out and lips provided with silk. Males have long mustaches. The latter are much bigger than females. They can measure between 1,6 in 2 meters, for 90 kg a 210 kg; females between 1,2 and 1,4 meters, for 25 kg a 55 kg. In our video, the behavior very different from both species in the water allows to discriminate between them.
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Isle of Skye, United Kingdom
