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Though leopard seals live and reproduce almost exclusively in fast ice and pack ice habitats surrounding the Antarctic Continent, they have been reported to range northward to South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean, South Africa, Patagonia, New Zealand and several islands in the South Atlantic, South Pacific, and southern Indian oceans. We summarize recent (2011 through 2018) sightings of leopard seals at Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Eastern Polynesia, and we discuss archeological and anthropological records (i.e., rock art, legends, archeological specimens, Rongorongo script) that arguably indicate that leopard seals have periodically appeared at the island for several centuries. We think that the most likely origin of these visits of leopard seals to Easter Island is from the Antarctic Peninsula to southwestern South America in austral winter as seasonal sea ice expands northward, or perhaps more recently from a small resident population in Tierra del Fuego, via the broad, cold Humboldt Current that flows northward along the Chilean coast from the Southern Ocean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leopard seals are distributed around the Antarctic continent principally between 50°S and 80°S though they are known to wander even farther north, particularly to Australia, New Zealand, South America, and South Africa, and several sub-Antarctic Islands. Seasonal movements of leopard seals have been correlated with seasonal changes in the distribution of sea ice with seals moving north as sea ice develops in spring and winter and southward toward the Antarctic continent as it melts in late autumn and winter. On August 9, 2013, an emaciated juvenile male leopard seal was observed swimming in Bounty Bay at Pitcairn Island (25°4′S, 130°6′W). It was found ashore at a boat ramp in the bay the next day. Because of the seal's apparent distress, it was promptly shot and killed humanely by an island police officer and then dumped at sea before any measurements or additional observations could be made. We estimated the seal to be a 10-month-old pup, about 1.8-2 m long. The appearance of this leopard seal at Pitcairn Island is only slightly farther south than the most northern record (the Cook Islands, 21°25′S, 159°8′W) for the species, but it is the most remote occurrence yet documented worldwide and correlates with the all-time record for sea ice coverage in the Antarctic in winter 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]