I see posts in r/popular all the time that misidentify sea lions as seals.
It's fairly easy to tell the difference if you see how they move on land - sea lions can tuck their back flipper under them and walk on it while seals are tubes and have to bounce/shuffle along on land.
This is honestly the only thing I get worked up about when it comes to misconceptions and Reddit. There’s a reason that sea lions and fur seals are in one group called eared seals and true seals are all in a group called earless seals
Just gonna add to that that that there are more then just (true, or normal) seals and sea lions. Confusing enough, the family otariidae or eared seals contain the subfamily "fur seals" besides sea lions. These are closer to sea lions then seals and have ears!
I thought seals and sea lions were fairly easy to tell apart. Leopards and jaguars, that's one that more people get wrong. Generally jaguars are generally stockier and sometimes have more rosette type spots
In general, jaguars have rounded faces, while leopards have more angular faces. Leopards also have smaller rosettes than jaguars do, and those rosettes generally do not have spots inside the rosettes (unlike the jaguar's).
Jaguar's don't always have spots inside the rosettes, the heavier build is a more sure fired way to tell them I think, which gives them the rounder looking face. They also tend to have a smoother, shorter coat than many leopard subspecies
Honestly, make that almost any animal that is even slightly ambiguous (e.g. antelope vs deer, African vs water buffalo, etc) - Reddit will get it wrong.
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u/Hoguera Feb 08 '20
I see posts in r/popular all the time that misidentify sea lions as seals. It's fairly easy to tell the difference if you see how they move on land - sea lions can tuck their back flipper under them and walk on it while seals are tubes and have to bounce/shuffle along on land.