Largest seal
- Who
- Southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina
- What
- 6.85 m long / 4,000 kg dimension(s)
- Where
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- When
- 28 February 1913
The largest of the 34 known species of pinniped is the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) of the subantarctic islands. Bulls average 5 m (16 ft 6 in) in length from the end of the inflated snout to the tips of the outstretched tail flippers, have a maximum girth of 3.7 m (12 ft) and weigh about 2,000-3,500 kg (4,400-7,720 lb). The largest accurately measured specimen of the elephant seal was a bull which weighed at least 4 tonnes (8,818 lb) and measured 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in) after flensing (stripping of the blubber or skin); its original length was estimated to be about 6.85 m (22 ft 6 in). It was killed in the South Atlantic at Possession Bay, South Georgia, on 28 February 1913.
This also makes them the largest pinnipeds and the largest carnivores overall (i.e., the largest member of the order Carnivora, best-known for eating meat), dwarfing even polar bears (Ursus maritimus), though the latter remains the largest terrestrial carnivore.
Female southern elephant seals are markedly smaller than the males, measuring 2.6 to 3 m (8.5 to 9.8 ft) long and weighing up to 900 kg (1,980 lb).
The northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris), native to the eastern Pacific Ocean off North America, is considerably smaller than its southern relative, with males generally growing to a maximum weight of 2,300 kg (5,070 lb) and seldom beyond 4 m (13 ft) long.