CEPHALOPODS AS PREY .2. SEALS

For 31 of the 33 extant species of pinnipeds it is either known or sus pected that they include cephalopods in their diet. The two exceptions are the Baikal Seal and the Caspian Seal, which inhabit freshwater wh ere cephalopods do not occur. The available evidence indicates that no species of seal specializes entirely on cephalopods and only few regu larly eat appreciable quantities of this prey, although for several th ey appear to be seasonally important prey. For most pinnipeds only rud imentary prey identifications have been published. The most common tax a of cephalopods reported to be consumed by seals are members of the n eritic Loliginidae, the oceanic Ommastrephidae, Onychoteuthidae and Go natidae, as well as benthic octopods. Too few quantitative diet analys es on enough pinnipeds have been done to quantify the consumption of c ephalopods by seals globally with any precision.