If you watch animal documentaries or animation, you would have come across both animals. You may even be one of those who think they are one and the same because of their striking resemblance! You are not alone in this confusion, reason we have compiled this fact sheet about them both. Hope you enjoy!
First, the Similarities
There’s a good reason seals and sea lions look so similar—they are both members of the pinniped taxonomic group, a name which in Latin refers to their fin feet.
Both animals are mammals, produce milk, have hair or fur on their bodies, are air breathing, and are able to control their body temperature – that is, they are endothermic. Both are also semi-aquatic, which means that they spend part of their lives on land, and part of their lives in the ocean. They share similar diet, and are prey to the same predator animals – polar bears, orcas (killer whales), and sharks.
So, what tells them apart? The easiest way to tell the two marine mammals apart is a matter of ears—or lack thereof. While sea lions have small ear flaps, seals have just tiny holes on the sides of their heads.
Seals
Seals are more adapted for water travel than for land travel because they can’t rotate their back flippers to walk on land. Seals also frequently have many colours in their fur, and can’t lift the front part of their body off the ground the way sea lions can. Their stubby front flipper-like feet and backward-facing hind flippers are little help on land, where they must wriggle about to move, but make them quick and agile underwater.
Seals are typically loners, who spend most of their life in the water.
Sea Lions
Sea lions on the other hand have feet that are well-suited to moving their heavy bodies around, with elongated front flippers and hind flippers that are able to rotate forward.
Sea lions’ flippers have no hair or claws, which makes it easier for them to grip the surface of rocks. The way they use their flippers to swim is different from seals, in that sea lions use their long, strong front flippers for power while they swim, and their back flippers for steering. This gives them an advantage when escaping predators, because should their back flippers be bitten, they could still swim quickly to get away, whereas if a seal had its back flipper bitten, it would lose its ability to move forward.
Sea lions are also usually monochromatic – that is, they have only one colour in their fur, while seals typically have many colours.
