What is special about harp seals?

During the breeding season, female ringed seals form large colonies on floating ice and give birth to pups. Adult seals return each year to pack up for the melting ice. They shed their fur and upper layers of skin and grow a new coat of fur each year.

kingofpunjabians

Jan 10, 2026 - 01:08

Jan 10, 2026 - 01:09

Ringed seals are sometimes called saddle seals because adults have black saddle-like markings on their backs and the sides of their yellow or gray bodies.

Ringed seals spend most of their time diving and swimming in the icy waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. These agile swimmers often hunt fish and crustaceans at depths of up to 90 meters and can dive to almost 300 meters.

Seal pups are born on floating ice in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Mothers of grey seals can identify their pups by their scent. Pups have no fat at birth, but they gain weight rapidly from their mother’s high-fat milk. When the pups weigh about 36 kilograms, their mothers stop nursing them. Pups can survive without food for about six weeks and can lose about half their body weight by the time they dive and begin hunting on their own. Young seals are known for their snow-white fur.

Seals migrate south in the winter. While males court females on land, mating itself takes place in the water. Male seals fight for mating rights by biting and hitting each other with their flippers. The dominant male will mate with several different females. Gestation lasts about 11 months, and pups are born around February. The pups are born with white fur, weigh about 11 kilograms and are about 80 centimeters long. The nursing period lasts only 10 days, during which the nursing seals do not eat. The pups grow rapidly, gaining about 40 kilograms. The seal mothers suddenly leave to begin mating, leaving the pups behind. The pups become sedentary to preserve their fat reserves, but they can lose up to half their body weight during this period. After seven or eight weeks, they learn to swim and hunt on their own.

Seals are omnivorous, and eat a wide variety (up to 130 different species by some estimates) of invertebrates and fish. In one study, some seals were found to have more than 70 species of fish and 65 species of invertebrates in their stomachs at one time. The most common food for seals is small fish such as Arctic cod, halibut, Arctic cod, and zeppelin.