There is one big difference between Arctic an Antarctic seals. An image like this could never been made in the Arctic. Ok, not because there are penguins in the shot, but also because the seal is hauling out somewhere quite far away from the water. Arctic seals will always haul out next to the waters edge, the place where they can escape Polar Bears.

For Antarctic seals however the water isn’t that safe at all… In the water one can find Leopard Seals (who will most likely leave other seals at peace), but also Killer Whales. For these whales seals are one of their favourite food sources and they’ve developed different hunting strategies to get to them. However, none of these strategies work when the seal is hauling out at a distance from the shore as the whales can of course not leave the water. Therefor a lot of seals make the effort of crawling some distance away from the shore before they sink away in a deep sleep.