Seals  By Max

Adult elephant male seals weigh 3,600kg.

Adult elephant female seals weigh 900kg.

Male elephant seals can be 4-5m long and

female elephant seals can be 2-3m long.

There are four different seals in New Zealand. There is the fur seal, the leopard seal, the elephant seal and the sea lion.  

Around the Coast Road you can find the fur seals, the elephant seal and the leopard seal.

Seals come from a group known as pinnipeds. All pinnipeds have streamlined bodies and limbs modified into flippers. Pinnipeds are divided into three families. walruses, true seals and eared seals.

True seals do not have external ears, cannot turn their hind flippers and have fur on both surfaces of their flippers. New Zealand examples include the leopard seal and the southern elephant seal.

Eared seals include the fur seal

and the sea lion. They have external

ears, hind flippers that cannot turn

under the body and no fur on their

flippers.