By Jake Buehler
Baikal seals are fans of bite-sized portions, and this dietary quirk may be why the seals are thriving.
Found in Russia’s immense Lake Baikal, the Siberian mammals devour tiny marine crustaceans, likely using comblike teeth in a manner similar to how baleen whales feed, a new study finds.
The research suggests that Baikal seals (Pusa sibirica) use a combination of special teeth, speed and skill to gobble up dozens of inch-long critters called amphipods on a single dive, scientists report November 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Typically, seals eat fish and mollusks, though some southern seals, like crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophaga), are honed eaters of krill, another type of small crustacean. For the Baikal seals, there may be big benefits to hunting amphipods. The crustaceans “are very predictable,” says marine biologist Yuuki Watanabe at the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo. “They form big aggregations, and they come to the surface in the nighttime.”