這是《動物王國大探險展》極地生態區的海豹導覽。在此聆聽這隻冰海中的圓潤身影，如何潛水與生存。
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This is the seal stop in the polar gallery of the Animal Kingdom Grand Adventure Exhibition. Listen here to how this round shape of the ice sea dives and lives.
Play the narration above. The transcript matches the audio.
冰下的海水黑暗深沉，一個圓潤油亮的身影，敏捷穿梭在冰縫與水面之間，捕食魚類、烏賊與甲殼類，這是極地生態裡的可愛動物之一：海豹。
海豹在陸地上時，無法使用四肢行走，只能像毛毛蟲一樣，靠著腹部肌肉的收縮，在冰面上蠕動滑行，但牠一到水中，流線型身體就如魚得水、靈活自如。此外，為了能長時間在深海中活動，海豹下潛時會排空肺部空氣以因應水壓變化，並降低心率來節省氧氣使用。
為了躲開大白鯊或虎鯨的獵食，有些種類的海豹，還演化出獨特的潛水睡覺方式，當下潛到掠食者無法到達的安全深度時，大腦會關機進入深層睡眠，在海水中一邊緩慢旋轉一邊做夢下墜。大約墜落10分鐘後，會在大腦因缺氧發出警告前，準時醒來，若無其事地游回海面。
海豹還是哺乳動物中罕見的「語言音樂模仿天才」，能精確控制喉嚨與聲帶，能學人講話。極地區的海豹也面臨了全球氣候變遷造成的危機，是急需我們守護的生命。
Under the ice the sea is dark and deep. A round, oil-bright shape darts between the cracks and the surface, hunting fish, squid, and crustaceans. This is one of the beloved animals of the polar ecology: the seal.
On land a seal cannot walk on four limbs. It can only, like a caterpillar, hitch itself over the ice by the squeeze of the belly. But once in the water the streamlined body is in its element, quick and free. To stay long in the deep, a seal emptying the lungs as it dives meets the change of pressure, and slows the heart to save oxygen.
To slip the hunt of the great white shark or the orca, some kinds of seal have evolved a way of sleeping underwater. When they dive to a safe depth the predator cannot reach, the brain shuts down into deep sleep, turning slowly in the sea and dreaming as they sink. After about ten minutes they wake on time, before the brain warns of a lack of oxygen, and swim back to the surface as if nothing had happened.
The seal is also a rare genius among mammals at copying the music of language, able to control throat and vocal cords with precision, and even to mimic human speech. Seals of the polar regions also face the crisis of a changing global climate. They are lives we must guard without delay.