Khokhlach: inflates his head like a balloon (6 photos)

Remember how, as a child, your mother kicked you out of the water with the words “get out, otherwise you’ll get snot”? So, mom was right! Male crested whales are not kicked out of the water, so they walk around with snot under their noses almost their entire lives! This is not surprising - hooded seals live in the northern part of the Atlantic. The water there is always excitingly cool. But the pinnipeds are not discouraged; they have made the membrane hanging from the nose their feature!





Mom, it honestly wasn’t cold there!

They use it during mating season. The crested fish membrane is very fun to inflate into a ball - the bigger the better. Ladies admire, males fear. If for some reason the inflation performance did not have an effect, the crested hooded fish has one more trick in store in its flipper. The pendant is also musical - when shaken, it makes various sounds, which allows you to maintain a diplomatic tone in negotiations with your opponent and attract the attention of the beauty.



Wow, Lyokha, what a breather you have! Blow up balloons with your nose...

When pantomime fails to scare off the impudent person, sharp teeth come into play. Crests fight fiercely, sometimes to the death. As a rule, fights arise when two equal males fight for the attention of a beautiful pinniped. At the beginning of the breeding season, crested seals find their own personal ice floe and wait for their snotty prince to sail to them on a blue wave. The male remains with the chosen one and protects her from annoying admirers until the kids begin to go out hunting on their own.





I'll sneeze now!

Crested chicks tend to grow up very quickly - so much so that their first molt occurs in the womb. And the feeding period takes only 15-18 days. Such rapid growth is possible thanks to the special milk of seals - it is very fatty, so the puppies (not a curse word) quickly gain weight. There is no time to throw snot on your fist: fat reserves are the key to warmth in the harsh regions of the North.



- Mom, when I grow up, will I have a huge snot like my dad? - No, Natasha, you will have beautiful eyes, like mine.

But in order to reach a full-fledged adult weight of 300 kilograms, males will have to sweat, hunting fish, squid, octopuses and crustaceans. Seals dive behind them to depths of up to a kilometer! It’s a little easier for females, their maximum weight is only 150 kg. Males are considered sexually mature at 4 years of age - this is when they develop a membrane under the nostril. But they will dare to compare nose boogers with other males only after two years. Until then, the animal’s main concern is healthy eating and good spearfishing.



Seryoga, I realized that you love me, stop blowing! You're about to burst!

In order to spend more time in the water, the hooded seals acquired another bag! After all, one is not enough! This time in the forehead. This growth is also only found in males. By inflating it, the seal provides itself with an additional supply of oxygen for long dives. In addition, seals use this bag as an additional resonator. It allows you to amplify sound underwater and warn of danger.



When you come back from a walk all dirty, covered in scrapes and bruises, but you don’t regret anything.

And this is quite a useful skill, because there are those who consider hooded seals to be quite tasty. For example, polar sharks, bears, killer whales, bowheads... Although pinnipeds may not worry about the latter: hunting for crested whales is severely limited due to the small population size.