Some of my favorite bizarre beasts, both already featured and yet-to-come, are the ones that are bizarre in behavior; however, it’s hard to resist a bizarre-looking one. Today’s beast is a lovely combination of the two: the hooded seal.

The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) lives on the ice of the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, generally in the waters around Iceland the Greenland. They survive off of crustaceans and fish in the frigid waters, like many other seals, so what exactly makes them unique?

Hooded seals get their namesake from a loose skin “hood” that appears on the males’ heads, billowing between their eyes, which is actually a result of their enlarged sinus cavity. When the male seal closes off a nostril and blows, an incredibly elastic nasal balloon emerges!

Besides the occasional party, what is this balloon used for, you ask? Communication! The balloon can be inflated under water to signal other seals that they are too close, and to back off. Recordings of underwater nasal inflations were studied by animal behaviorists to deduce that the main use of the balloon was to show aggressive threats.

Similarly, the nasal balloon is used by the males during the breeding season. Males are polygynous (i.e., one male may breed with multiple females), so there is often heavy competition between males for access to females to mate with. That said, if you’re a gigantic male seal, and you constantly have to fight, you’re going to be worn down. Similarly, if you’re a wimpy male seal, you don’t want to constantly be beaten up when you attempt to challenge other males, right? Enter the nose balloons.

By comparing the size and color of the balloons, males can fight via nose-proxy without having to resort to actual violence and risk injuring themselves, or even dying. Only when noses are equally matched will the seals resort to fisticuffs (well, finicuffs, I suppose) to work out a dominant male. Like in all matches of manliness, the one with the biggest, pinkest balloon wins. Watch this video courtesy of National Geographic to see how the battle of the noses plays out: