---
title: "Weddell Seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "The most southerly-ranging mammal living permanently in Antarctica, rasping breathing holes through new sea ice with its teeth and diving as deep as 720 metres."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/weddell-seal-1.webp"
published: "2026-09-05"
updated: "2026-09-29"
---
# Weddell Seal (*Leptonychotes weddellii*)
> **Status**: Checked against 4 sources, listed under Sources below.
> **Tagline**: The most southerly-ranging mammal living permanently in Antarctica, rasping breathing holes through new sea ice with its teeth and diving as deep as 720 metres.
> **Soundtrack Vibe**: IDM, Glitch & Ambient Synthesis // Jon Hopkins, "Open Eye Signal (under the fabric)"
> **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/5lFNqg3eMNMuJsnFRKB460) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q04ILDXe3QE)
> **Vibe Match**: Deep hypnotic modular synth pulses, sub-bass resonance, and cold sci-fi textures. Under the fast ice, Weddell seals call to each other in long whistles falling in tone, strings of repeated chirps and single, slowly descending tones.
## Biological Superpowers & Stats
- **Taxonomy**: *Leptonychotes weddellii*
- **Danger Level**: Low
- **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2026-1.rlts.t11696a95969474.en))
- **Superpower**: Rasps breathing holes open through new sea ice with its canine and incisor teeth, dives as deep as 720 metres, and can stay under for more than 90 minutes with no neurological or behavioural impairment.
- **Habitat**: Fast ice and inshore coastal waters around the continental coast of Antarctica
- **Diet**: Mid-water and bottom-dwelling fish, squid, octopus and prawns
- **Tags**: mammal, antarctic, deep-diver, ice-dweller
## Natural History & Behavior
## Living at the Bottom of the World
Of all the mammals that live permanently in Antarctica, none ranges further south than the **Weddell seal** (*Leptonychotes weddellii*), which lives on and around the fast ice all the way round the continent's coast. Adults of both sexes are about 3 metres long and weigh around 400 to 500 kg. Weddell seals stay coastal, venturing only 15 to 20 km into the Southern Ocean to feed, and return to the same area of fast ice each year to rest, moult and give birth.
## Rasping Through the Ice to Breathe
In the warmer summer months the ice has many cracks to breathe through. In winter those openings freeze over, and Weddell seals keep their air supply the hard way, using their canines and incisors to rasp open the new ice and maintain a breathing hole. It is a trade-off: the constant grinding wears those teeth down, and enough wear may eventually leave a seal unable to feed or keep its holes open.
## Deep Dives, Safe Hunting
Under the ice, Weddell seals are serious divers. Hunting dives can last up to 45 minutes and reach depths as great as 720 metres, though their bodies can do more.
> **No Blackout Zone** A Weddell seal can stay underwater for more than 90 minutes with no neurological or behavioural impairment, even though its blood oxygen falls to levels that would leave a human unconscious.
The reward down there is a diet of pelagic and bottom-dwelling fish, squid, octopus and prawns; one seal was repeatedly observed to capture a fish weighing more than 40 kg. Staying under the ice also pays off in defence: the space beneath it is relatively safe from air-breathing predators such as killer whales and leopard seals.
## An Alien Soundtrack and a Long Antarctic Life
Recorded Weddell seal calls include repeated chirps, a long high whistle falling in tone, or a single, slowly descending tone. Both sexes call, and males may do so to hold their underwater territories. Females aged six and over give birth to one pup a year, in October. A newborn weighs 25 to 30 kg; after six weeks of its mother's care it has grown to 110 to 140 kg. National Geographic gives the species' average life span in the wild as 30 years.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### How do Weddell seals get air once the sea ice freezes solid in winter?
It makes its own. Working at the freshly frozen surface with its canine and incisor teeth, a seal rasps a breathing hole open and keeps it that way, and it has to find those holes again in the darkness of winter before its oxygen runs out. The work is costly: worn-down teeth may eventually leave a seal unable to feed or hold its holes open. *(Source: [Australian Antarctic Program 2018]())*
### How is a Weddell seal able to stay underwater for over 90 minutes?
A human brain can be injured after just a few minutes of oxygen deprivation underwater. Part of the answer may lie in the brain itself: a study measuring oxygen-carrying proteins in the cerebral cortex of 16 mammal species found a nearly 9.5-fold range in haemoglobin between land mammals and deep divers. The authors conclude these proteins help move oxygen into nerve tissue, letting marine mammals keep sensory and locomotor functions working during prolonged submergence. *(Source: [Williams et al. 2007]())*
### Why do Weddell seals stay so close to the fast ice instead of open water?
The fast ice is where they haul out to rest, moult and give birth, and the water beneath it is relatively safe from air-breathing predators such as killer whales and leopard seals. Underwater they usually keep within 50 to 100 km of their breeding colony, though some, especially juveniles, make occasional journeys of several hundred kilometres. *(Source: [Australian Antarctic Program 2018]())*
### How long do Weddell seals live?
National Geographic lists the Weddell seal's average life span in the wild as 30 years. *(Source: [National Geographic]())*
## Sources
1. [Weddell seal. Australian Antarctic Program, 2018.]()
2. [Weddell Seal. National Geographic.]()
3. [Williams et al. (2007). Running, swimming and diving modifies neuroprotecting globins in the mammalian brain. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.]()
4. [Hückstädt (2026). Leptonychotes weddellii. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2026: e.T11696A95969474.]()
*Published September 5, 2026. Last updated September 29, 2026.*
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