2. Order Carnivora –
Suborder Pinnipedia
• Seals, sea lions, walruses
• Pinniped means “feather foot”
• Paddle shaped flippers and hind
limbs for swimming and moving on
land
• Return to shore – “haul out” – to
rest, mate and raise pups
3. Order Carnivora –
Suborder Pinnipedia
• Evolved from same line as bears
• Largest = male northern elephant
seal – 8,000 lbs., feeds on sharks,
skates, fish, squid
4. Order Carnivora – Suborder Pinnipedia
seals vs sea lions
Seals Sea Lions
Hind flippers for swimming – Front flippers longer for
front flippers short swimming
Cannot turn hind flippers under Can turn hind flippers under body
body - useless for walking – - to walk on land
awkward on land
No ear flap – just hole Visible external ear flaps
Usually in colder waters – thick Usually in warmer waters – less
blubber layer blubber
Not trainable – not in shows Trainable – in shows
5. Order Carnivora – Suborder Pinnipedia
seals vs sea lions
sea lion seal
7. Order Carnivora – Suborder Pinnipedia
walruses
• Larger than seals and sea lions
• Weigh up to 2 tons
• Tusks help search for food (clams and
mussels) and pull bodies on ice floes
• Thick blubber layer
8. Order Carnivora –
Suborder Pinnipedia
• No sea lions or walruses near Long Island
• Only true seals:
Gray seal
Harp seal
Harbor seal –
most common
Ringed seal Hooded seal
9. Order Carnivora – sea otters
• Smallest marine mammals
• Wide flipper-like hind feet and large flattened
tails to swim
• No blubber, but dense fur, layer of air below
fur, high metabolic rate (to generate heat)
keeps them warm
• Almost hunted to extinction for fur – early
1900s
10. Order Carnivora – sea otters
• Use tools (stones) to feed on clams and sea
urchins and many other things
• Important in kelp forests in California
• No sea otters on east coast – only river otters
11. Order Carnivora – polar bears
• Live in Arctic on pack ice or tundra
• Solitary and nomadic – walk and swim
between ice floes
• Oar-like front paws to swim
• Hunt by surprise – seals, stranded whales,
sometimes fish and birds, also berries and
seaweed
12. Order Carnivora – polar bears
• Thick fur and blubber
• Largest bears
• No enemies, but humans
13. Order Sirenia
• Manatees and dugongs (sea cows)
• Slow, harmless, defenseless
• Evolved from ungulates (deer
or horselike ancestor)
• Herbivores – eat seagrasses and
seaweeds
• Tropical and subtropical coastal
waters and rivers, ex: Florida
manatee
14. Order Sirenia
• Swim by moving tail up and down
• Rely on sound for communication
• Previously hunted to low numbers, now
protected, but killed by boats
dugong
15. Order Sirenia
• Stellar sea cow – lived in Bering Sea
• Hunted to extinction in 1768 - 27 years after
discovery
16. Marine Mammal Protection Act
• Enacted in 1972 in response to declines in
whale and other marine mammal populations
• Illegal to hunt, harvest, harass,
kill or possess marine mammals
or any parts
• Exceptions for Alaska natives
