• Question: how old can a seal or penguin get

    Asked by anon-193217 to iainstaniland on 12 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Iain Staniland

      Iain Staniland answered on 12 Nov 2018:

      Well it depend on the type of penguin or seal and, for seals at least, what sex.
      The smallest penguin (little blue) it is thought to be around 6 years, the largest (emperor) around 20 years and the the longest is the Magellanic at 30 years.
      For the Antarctic fur seals that I study females are much smaller than males and they also live a lot longer (on average), Female seals can live to up to over 20 years but for Males 14 years would be very very old (most only love to 7 years old)
      With seals we can age them from their teeth using growth bands. For penguins there is currently no reliable method of aging them and we have to rely on knowing when they were born.

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