About Arctic Seals
The frigid and inaccessible Artic region, though blanketed in snow and harsh weather conditions, is home to an incredible ecosystem. Several polar animals, including different species of artic seals, thrive on the ice and depend on it for their survival. According to Brendan Kelly, a University of Alaska biologist, a catastrophic artic snow meltdown in 2007 has renewed research interest in understanding how depleting sea ice affects the artic seal’s living conditions.
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Habitat
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Artic seals, also known as ice seals, are mammals that inhabit the circumpolar oceans across the Northern Hemisphere, from Northern Russia to Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Canada. All artic seal species live in the open sea and near the edges of drifting ice packs, spending much of their life swimming beneath the sea ice. As mammals, artic seals require air to breathe and survive. During late autumn and early winter months, when the water begins to freeze, artic seals create breathing holes in the ice with their strong claws. They keep these breathing holes open by using their nose to push through newly formed ice layers.
Physical Characteristics
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While different seal species have specific identifying features, the average, adult artic seal has a nose-to-tail length of 4 to almost 10 feet and weighs between 400 to 600 pounds. Though at birth, seal pups are only 24 inches in height and weigh 15 pounds, they grow quite fast. Seals are born with a fluffy, white fur that keeps them warm and camouflages them from predators. A month after birth, the baby seal’s soft white fur turns into a dark, thick weather-proof pelt, even as its body gains blubber, a thick layer of fat that helps insulation. Seals are equipped with front and hind flippers to help them swim and retain body heat.
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Species
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Six species of seals live in the arctic region, including the harp, hooded, ringed, bearded, spotted, and ribbon seal. Each of these seals has an identifying feature: harp seals have harp-shaped patterns on the back and sides; an inflatable crest or hood appears on the forehead of hooded seals; the bearded seal has long whiskers; ring-shaped marks appear on the ringed seals coat; while spotted and ribbon seals display spot and ribbon marks on their bodies. The ringed, bearded and spotted seals are listed as endangered species.
Diet
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Artic seals are carnivores and feed on a wide variety of seafood like shrimps, eels, octopus, salmon, herring, cod, krill, crab, plankton, smelt, anchovies, jellyfish and small crustaceans. Seal pups feed on their mother's milk, though interestingly, their teeth grow only when they eat food.
Predators
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Artic seals need to be on guard from several predators, including killer whales, some variety of sharks, polar bears and people. Seal pups are especially targeted by hunters for their fluffy white fur coat. Even though the import of white-coat products was banned by the European Economic Community in 1983, a conservation group reported the illegal killing of at least 20,000 seal pups and the sale of their fur coats in the black market in 1997.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit a pair of seals image by Penny Williams from Fotolia.com
