Southern elephant seal  (Mirounga leonina)

Range

The southern elephant seal is found throughout the southern oceans during the non-breeding season, but in the breeding season, it splits into three discrete populations on islands north of the Antarctic’s pack ice. The main islands to support the breeding seals are South Georgia, near the southern-most tip of South America; Macquarie Island, 1,500 km south-southeast of Tasmania; and Kerguelen Island, midway between Africa, Antarctica and Australia (5).

View a distribution map for this species at UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

Habitat

Inhabits the open ocean during the non-breeding season, where they can dive to remarkable depths (2). During the breeding season, the southern elephant seal is generally found on beaches and rocky terrain, and sometimes on ice and snow (4).

left