A Terror to Penguins: The Leopard Seal Quiz

Answer: Hydrurga

The leopard seal is, in fact, the only species in the Hydrurga genus. 'Hydrurga' means 'water worker'.

Answer: Antarctica

Leopard seals favour a cold climate, and are generally found in the icy waters of the Antarctic, especially within the Western Antarctic region. Some vagrant leopard seals have been found off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, South America and South Africa.

Answer: False

While leopard seals are quite high up on the food chain, they're not completely invulnerable. Both killer whales and sharks have preyed on them.

Answer: Harbour seal

'Lobodontini' means 'lobe-toothed', and is a reference to the shape of these seals' teeth. They also have cusps on their teeth, which act as a sieve for getting smaller prey out of the water, such as krill (which comes in particularly handy for the crabeater seal, which predominantly feeds on krill).

The crab eater, Ross and Weddell seals are the leopard seal's closest relatives. The harbour seal does not belong to a tribe.

Answer: It has no ears

There are three types of pinnipeds; the true (or earless) seals, the sea lions, and the fur seals. True seals are also known as 'crawling seals' because, unlike sea lions and fur seals, they have very short flippers. This means that they cannot walk on all fours, and must therefore crawl along on their bellies.

Answer: Grabbing it by its feet and shaking it to death

The leopard seal will hide under the water, near the edge of the ice, and wait for the penguin(s) to enter. It then catches a penguin in its teeth, grabbing it by the foot, and shakes the penguin and smashes it against the surface of the water until it is dead. Leopard seals were once believed to have skinned penguins after killing them, but this was proven incorrect as their teeth are not equipped for slicing prey into smaller pieces.

Instead, the leopard seal shakes its prey from side to side, tearing its body apart.

Answer: A variety of calls, such as clonks, trills and hoots

Male leopard seals make at least five different sounds. The number of differentiated calls depends on a male's age; a younger one has a larger range than an older one. They vocalise underwater, and their calls can vary from high-pitched bird-like trills to moans or clonking noises.

This is a way of setting out their territory, but they can also use it to attract mates. Scientists have managed to record these calls by placing tiny microphones around pack ice.

Answer: Leopard seals hunt in packs

Leopard seals may occasionally be spotted with one or two other individual seals, but generally, outside the mating season, they are solitary creatures and hunt alone.

Answer: She brought him penguins

Nicklen said afterwards that he expected the leopard seal he met to attack him. To his surprise, the beast brought him several penguins, some living, some dead. He believed she mistook him for a smaller leopard seal, and was trying to feed him as well as teach him to fend for himself.

Answer: Yes

Although leopard seals do not prey on humans as a rule, they have attacked divers and bitten explorers such as Ernest Shackleton, and there has been at least one fatality caused by a leopard seal. Kirsty Brown, a British biologist, was dragged underwater by a leopard seal while snorkelling in Antarctica in 2003.

A rescue boat was called, but it was too late and she drowned. She was the first human to be killed by a leopard seal.