Find Out What Elephant Seals Eat

The giant seals of the sea – elephant seals are the marine-dwellers that are native to the Pacific Coast. There are two kinds of elephant seals called the northern elephant seal and the southern elephant seal. The southern elephant seal tends to be larger than the northern elephant seal.

The purpose of deep-diving into the ocean is to capture the prey as much as they can feed themselves. Hence, elephant seals have a record of diving as deep as 7,835 ft. Being carnivores, elephant seals feast on various diets, specifically aquatic creatures. So if you’re wondering “What do elephant seals eat?” we’ll dive deep into their particular diet.

Insects, Animals, and Fish

Diving into the depths of the sea for hunting, elephant seals depend on the aquatic creatures to feast on. The ocean provides a myriad of feeding opportunities to every large and small animal.

Similarly, the physical adaptation to the deepwater bodies allows them to be great swimmers and divers. Hence, they can smoothly roam around the sea hunting for food continuously until they are full!

Employing the power of their whiskers, elephant seals can detect their prey along with its environment. Consume as much fish as they can catch, elephant seals eat squid, sharks, sea otters, and fish. Most of their diet consists of squid since it’s considered one of the favorite foods of various sea animals. Other than that, elephant seals eat birds, krill, cod, and meat in the form of various fishes and aquatic animals. As you might’ve already guessed, these massive animals don’t feed on insects or bugs.

Fruit, Vegetables, and Plants

Every layer of the sea has a food supply for every aquatic organism including plants. Hence, the ecosystem relies upon every animal and the food web that they create by consuming each other. As for the great divers, elephant seals aren’t fond of foraging on a plant-based diet. They are strictly carnivorous mammals.

What do elephant seals eat in Antarctica?

Elephant seals take the route of Antarctica for foraging prey to feed themselves. Elephant seals eat a variety of squids like glacial squid, Antarctic neosquid, and greater hooked squid, to name a few. They might as well ingest mollusks and a variety of fishes like cod, white-blooded fish, smelt, and krill among others.

What elephant seals don’t eat

Although elephant seals might attack and scare off the other animals, they might not consume them. That being said, elephant seals don’t eat penguins and humans.

However, their other species might love to devour penguins if given the opportunity. Apart from that, elephant seals don’t eat seals, leopard seals, sea lions, plants, and other seals. And that’s because they heavily depend on the diverse number of squids widely available in the sea. Those are one of the exclusive feasts of elephant seals.