The Seal That Can “Lose” Its Head
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An animal that can pull its head almost completely into its neck has recently been added to the mammal collections of the Smithsonian Institution. This is the Ross seal, one of the rarest of all the seal family in the Antarctic.
A frozen specimen captured by the Navy’s polar expedition in 1956 arrived at the U. S. National Museum in Washington in excellent condition. This seal—about 8 feet long—dwells exclusively on the drifting ice pack of the Ross Sea. So far as is known it never comes on land or on the ice shelf. It apparently feeds almost exclusively on cuttlefish and squid, which are abundant in Antarctic waters. To judge by the nature of its teeth it undoubtedly is not a fish-eater. It is yellowish-green on the underside and blackish-brown on the top, the fur often being marked with pale streaks along the sides.
On the drifting pack it has fearsome enemies—notably the killer whale and the writhing, snake-like sea-leopard, most savage of the seal family—which may account for its relative scarcity. The outstanding peculiarity of the creature, probably unique among mammals, is the thick bloated neck into which the head can be withdrawn. This may be a protective characteristic although it could hardly serve the creature against its fierce enemies. On the other hand, withdrawal of the head may be a comfortable habit in a very cold climate.