🐾 Seal

Seal

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Who it is

• Scientific name: Phocidae (family); harbor seal Phoca vitulina
• Family & relatives: True seals (family Phocidae), related to sea lions, fur seals, and walruses within the pinnipeds.
• How to spot it: Look for a rounded torpedo body, short flippers, no visible ear flaps, and (in harbor seals) a spotted coat.

Its body & abilities

• Size: Harbor seals are about 1.2 to 1.9 m (4 to 6 ft) long; other true seals range far larger.
• Weight: Harbor seals weigh about 45 to 130 kg (100 to 285 lb); giant southern elephant seals can top 3,000 kg.
• Body & adaptations: A thick blubber layer keeps them warm, and their bodies and hind flippers are shaped to power them through water.
• Top speed: Harbor seals can swim up to around 19 km/h (12 mph) in short bursts.
• Strength: They are expert divers; some true seals dive hundreds of meters deep and stay under for many minutes.
• Senses: Their large eyes and sensitive whiskers detect prey in dark or murky water, and hearing works well underwater.
• Growing up: Pups are born on land or ice, nurse on rich fatty milk, and grow quickly before learning to swim and hunt.

Where it lives

• Habitat: They live in oceans and along coasts, from cold polar waters to temperate shores.
• Where in the world: Seals are found in seas worldwide; harbor seals inhabit the coasts of the Northern Hemisphere.
• Territory: They gather to rest at favored haul-out sites on rocks, beaches, or ice rather than defend fixed land.

What it eats

• Diet: Carnivores that hunt in the sea and get the water they need from their prey.
• Favorite foods: They eat fish, squid, octopus, and crustaceans.
• How it hunts: They dive and chase prey underwater, using whiskers to sense fish even in the dark.

How it behaves

• How it moves: They swim by sweeping their hind flippers side to side and wriggle awkwardly on land since their hind flippers cannot turn forward.
• When it is active: Active by day and night at sea, often hauling out to rest and warm up in the sun.
• Family life: Often gather in numbers to rest; a group on land is called a colony or rookery.
• How it talks: They bark, grunt, and slap the water, and some males produce underwater calls to attract mates.
• Babies: Females usually give birth to a single pup each year, often with delayed implantation to time the birth.

Its place in nature

• Role in nature: They are important mid-level ocean predators and prey for orcas, large sharks, and polar bears.
• Conservation: The harbor seal is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, though pollution, entanglement, and disease affect some populations.
• Dangers: Predators, fishing net entanglement, pollution, and disease are leading causes of death.

Life & legacy

• How long it lives: Harbor seals live about 25 to 35 years in the wild.
• In our culture: Charming and curious, seals appear in coastal folklore such as the Celtic selkie legends and are favorites at aquariums.
• Where to see it: See harbor seals along the coasts of California, New England, the UK, and northern Europe, often resting on rocks.
• Fun fact: A seal can slow its heartbeat and store oxygen in its blood and muscles to stay underwater far longer than a human.