Leopard Seal
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
40 free Leopard Seal trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The leopard seal is one of the most striking hunters of the polar seas: long, spotted, powerfully jawed and surprisingly musical. It is also something of a mystery, because it spends its life in a place few people ever reach. This quiz turns the best leopard seal fun facts into questions. They cover the animal's body and senses, what it eats and how it catches a meal, its songs, its pups, the places it turns up far from home, and the explorers, scientists and film-makers who have crossed its path. It suits wildlife fans, students, teachers and anyone curious about polar animals. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will finish knowing far more about this predator than when you started.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what position does a male leopard seal hang underwater while it sings for hours each day?
Upside down
Upside down is how a male leopard seal sings, rocking from side to side with its chest puffed out and pulsing with every call.
Q 02A leopard seal captured near Sydney was found to have eaten which fully grown Australian mammal?
Platypus
Platypus was the surprise on the menu, proof that a leopard seal will eat almost anything it meets, from squid and fish to penguins.
Q 03A leopard seal grows about as long as which Arctic animal, yet usually weighs less than half as much?
Walrus
Walrus is the comparison: an adult leopard seal matches its length at 2.4 to 3.5 metres but is built lean and muscular for chasing fast prey.
Q 04Which animal is the only natural predator of the leopard seal in its Antarctic home?
Killer whale
Killer whale pods are the one thing a leopard seal has to fear. Otherwise it sits at the very top of the food chain as an apex predator.
Q 05A female leopard seal spent four days bringing penguins to Paul Nicklen, a photographer for which magazine?
National Geographic
National Geographic ran his photos of the encounter: she offered him live, then injured, then dead penguins, apparently trying to feed him.
Q 06A leopard seal chased Thomas Orde-Lees across the sea ice on which explorer's 1914–1917 Antarctic expedition?
Ernest Shackleton
Ernest Shackleton's men were camped on the floes when the animal, about 3.7 metres long, went after Orde-Lees. They called it a sea-leopard.
Q 07What was biologist Kirsty Brown doing when a leopard seal made its first recorded fatal attack on a human?
Snorkeling
Snorkeling on an underwater survey near Britain's Rothera station in 2003, Brown was dragged under by the animal. Attacks on people are extremely rare.
Q 08Antarctic researchers fit special guards because leopard seals keep attacking which kind of craft?
Inflatable boats
Inflatable boats have black, torpedo-shaped pontoons that leopard seals seem unable to resist biting, so crews armour them against punctures.
Q 09In which animated film does a leopard seal chase a young penguin named Mumble?
Happy Feet
Happy Feet sends Mumble fleeing from a hungry leopard seal, an escape that lands him among the Adélie penguins who become his friends.
Q 10The leopard seal's long, slim body, massive jaws and huge gape give it the look of which animal?
A snake
A snake is the comparison wildlife guides draw, thanks to a head that looks too big for the body and a mouth that opens astonishingly wide.
Q 11Among the seals of the Antarctic, which is the only species that grows larger than leopard seals do?
Elephant seal
Elephant seal, of the southern species, is the only one bigger. A male was once reported to have killed a leopard seal at Heard Island.
Q 12The leopard seal's back teeth lock together to sieve which small prey out of the water?
Krill
Krill are sucked in and strained through the interlocking molars, so the same mouth that kills penguins also works as a filter.
Q 13Like every true seal in the family Phocidae, the leopard seal lacks which external feature?
Ear flaps
Ear flaps are missing on every true seal. The leopard seal hears through a small opening in the skin that leads to an internal canal.
Q 21Leopard seals steer with their huge front flippers, a swimming style more like that of which animals?
Sea lions
Sea lions use their front flippers the same way. The leopard seal's are extremely large for a true seal, which makes it very agile in a chase.
Q 22The leopard seal's coat is dark on top and pale underneath, a camouflage pattern known by which name?
Countershading
Countershading is a trick shared with dolphins and herring. On the leopard seal a dark grey back fades to a silver belly scattered with spots.
Q 23Which conservation status does the IUCN Red List give the leopard seal, a widespread Antarctic predator?
Least Concern
Q 14Outside the breeding season, how do leopard seals usually spend their days on the Antarctic pack ice?
On their own
On their own is the rule: leopard seals are loners, and even adults seen near each other in the pup season show no sign of interacting.
Q 15Which leopard seal parent raises the pup on the ice for about its first month?
Only the mother
Only the mother raises the pup, which is born weighing about 30 kg. The male plays no part and goes back to his wandering.
Q 16Owha, described as the world's longest-tracked leopard seal, spent a decade around the coast of which country?
New Zealand
New Zealand's Auckland marinas were her favourite haunt. Sightings of her helped get the species reclassified there from a stray visitor to a resident.
Q 17A wandering leopard seal once reached subtropical Heron Island, which lies within which natural wonder?
Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef waters are a very long way from the pack ice, which is why leopard seals are counted among the greatest wanderers of the Antarctic seals.
Q 18To cope with the pressure of a deep dive, a leopard seal collapses which of its organs?
Its lungs
Its lungs collapse on the way down and re-inflate at the surface, and a reinforced windpipe keeps the airway from being crushed.
Q 19With no teeth able to slice its prey, how does a leopard seal tear a penguin into smaller pieces?
Flails it side to side
Flails it side to side: the leopard seal seizes a swimming penguin, then whips it against the water's surface until it comes apart.
Q 20Unusually for a seal, the leopard seal regularly hunts and kills which broad kind of animal?
Warm-blooded animals
Warm-blooded animals such as penguins and even other seals are fair game for a leopard seal, the most formidable hunter in its family.
Least Concern reflects an animal that is abundant across its range and was never hunted on a commercial scale, though shrinking pack ice may put it at risk.
Q 24A thick layer of what insulates a leopard seal and also streamlines its body for the chase?
Blubber
Blubber does double duty, keeping out the cold of freezing water and smoothing the animal's outline. Scientists judge a seal's condition by how thick it is.
Q 25In 1985 explorer Gareth Wood's companions drove off a leopard seal by kicking it with what on their boots?
Crampons
Crampons, the spiked frames worn for grip on ice, saved him: the animal had bitten Wood twice and was trying to drag him into the sea.
Q 26A breeding population of leopard seals appears to live year-round in the far south of which South American country?
Chile
Chile's Patagonia has resident leopard seals that have been recorded reproducing there, while its neighbours see only the occasional stray.
Q 27In 2021 a leopard seal harassed three spearfishermen for half an hour off Simon's Town in which country?
South Africa
South Africa is a rare stop for the species, yet this one stripped the divers of their fins and spearguns as they swam for shore.
Q 28Leopard seals track prey underwater by combining their hearing with which other sensitive body part?
Whiskers
Whiskers work together with the ears to follow prey below the surface, even though a leopard seal's are short and clear.
Q 29Which Australian zoo cared for rescued leopard seals named Brooke, Sabine and Casey from 1999 to 2014?
Taronga Zoo
Taronga Zoo in Sydney nursed the stranded animals back to health but never released them, for fear they would carry disease to wild leopard seals.
Q 30Starving leopard seals stranded on Australian beaches carried bite marks from which small, oddly named fish?
Cookiecutter shark
Cookiecutter shark bites are neat round plugs gouged out of much bigger animals, and the thin, weak strays that reached Australia bore them.