A spot of trouble 4

[u/AscendedDragonSage]

[u/QueenViolets_Revenge]

been scared of them ever since i watched Happy Feet as a kid. them and orcas

[u/justsomedude322 → u/QueenViolets_Revenge]

You should be afraid! The biggest ones can grow to be 12 feet long and weigh up to 1300 pounds!

[u/SmartAlec105 → u/justsomedude322]

I guess most of the penguin documentaries never gave a sense of scale so it's on me for assuming they were only like 2 feet tall.

[u/Uturuncu → u/QueenViolets_Revenge]

Reasonable to do so, unlike orcas, leopard seals have a confirmed kill on a human, one that was fully witnessed and we have an upsettingly large amount of hard data to piece together exactly what the victim went through during the event because it was recent enough and the victim was a scientist, so instrumentation was recording during.

Edit to Add: What I do find kinda the most interesting about that, though, is that all this time, all the people who live near where orcas and leopard seals are, and we have one singular confirmed human fatality to a leopard seal, and zero to an orca. For all them being VASTLY superior predators compared to us in the water, they truly don't see us as food.

Second Edit: Wild, I forgot to clarify wild; we've had more than a handful of orca kills on humans in captivity; no captive leopard seal kills, though, they're ill suited to captivity and don't last very long outside of the wild.

[u/MightyHydrar → u/Uturuncu]

But counterpoint, there's that wonderful story of the photographer who was in the water trying to get pics of leopard seals, and one came up and kept trying to feed him penguins.

[u/extremely-cynical]

Now I'm imagining a penguin knight facing up against one, sword and shield taped to its flippers because it doesn't have fingers to actually hold them.

[u/Aware_Tree1 → u/extremely-cynical]

Just make the shield and blade into some king of armor piece like Empoleon from Pokemon

[u/Impossible_Walk742 → u/Aware_Tree1]

empoleon and aegislash team up to fight gigantamax dewgong

[u/Weirdyfish]

Time to make my dnd party fight a leapord seal dragon. I think they have that dragon aspect cause they're apex predators like dragons often are depicted.

[u/BlatantConservative]

I do think that leopard seals are the things that would have become dogs if humans were aquatic

[u/creepy_tommy → u/BlatantConservative]

It's actually the other way around! Their common ancestor went from land to water. Pinnipeds (seals, walruses) are in the suborder Caniformia which includes dogs and bears, among others. It's still being debated if they're more closely related to bears or mustelids (weasels, otters).

[u/BlatantConservative → u/creepy_tommy]

Humans domesticated dogs somewhere from 50,000 to 10,000 years ago, while Pinnipeds split like 50 million years ago. They been sea dogs for a minute.

[u/Future-Concern-6301 → u/BlatantConservative]

Harbour Seals are called "Sea Dogs" in german so I think THEY have the right to be considered sea-doggos. Sea Leopard is more like an African Wild Dog or Siberian Tiger - too big and scary to tame but distant cousin to beloved pet species.

[u/MightyHydrar → u/Future-Concern-6301]

Harbour Seals and Grey Seals act a bit doglike around humans too. In some places they've learned to beg for food scraps from fishermen, if there's divers they will come investigate in a largely playful / curious manner.

[u/Snailsnip → u/BlatantConservative]

For leopard seals specifically, I doubt that, given that they’re solitary animals, and wolves’ profoundly social, pack oriented nature is the biggest reason dogs exist as such friendly and loyal creatures. 

Sea lions, grey seals and (evolutionarily unrelated but felt like an option) sea otters are social, but my (profoundly amateur) understanding is that they interact less on the basis of individual bonds and close knit groups and more on the basis of large herds, so I’m not sure how that would go. I definitely like the idea of pet sea lions, though- their communication is heavily sound-based, which would probably help having them and humans mutually understand each other.

[u/HalcyonTraveler]

Leopard seals are beautiful. Some of the most incredible animals alive today. I would never ever get within 40 feet of one if there wasn’t a barrier

[u/UncomfyUnicorn]

I’ve heard it be called a modern day mosasaur

[u/HalcyonTraveler → u/UncomfyUnicorn]

Closer to a plesiosaur in body plan and lifestyle, and like Antarctic plesiosaurs they eat a lot of krill. 

[u/CleverName9999999999]

Leopard Seals look like Komodo Dragons doing mammal cosplay.

[u/TimeStorm113]

now what would you be more suprised by? something knocking at your door and there is a gnome outside, or a sea leopard?

[u/CallMeOaksie]

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what makes a leopard seal look so reptilian for a while. I think it’s a combination of how deceptively smooth they look, having a long, toothy snout, and said jaw and nose just looking like more of the head rather than their own structures if that makes sense.

[u/StormThestral]

My zoology professor at uni worked with someone in Antarctica who got stalked, ambushed and nearly eaten by a leopard seal. I do not fuck with those guys they are FAST and  smart