The harp seal: photos and interesting facts

The harp seal is an amazing animal. About its features, habits, habitats, we will tell in this article. In another way, this mammal is also called bald.

Where does this beast live?

The habitat of this representative of the fauna is quite extensive, it is common in the Arctic waters. There is a harp seal in the Arctic Ocean, in the White Sea, on the coast of the Labrador Peninsula and the islands of Newfoundland. A representative of this species can be found north of the island of Jan Mayen. Outside the mating season, animals occupy other territorial expanses, for example, in the Barents and Kara Seas. Also this species can be found even in the Atlantic corners of Canada and the island of Greenland.

Features

The harp seal is the most numerous species of the family called "true seals". Despite its wide variety, the bald is very easy to distinguish from other representatives of "real seals".

The first and most important thing that should be noted is the specific and unique color that this Arctic inhabitant has. At birth, the young of the harp seal are greenish in color. After a few days, the color of the baby's coat and the structure of the baby changes. It becomes hollow and transparent. Sun rays through such hollow villi easily fall on a black body and warm the skin. In the habitat of the harp seal it is more than ever.

When the baby grows up, becomes independent and refuses milk, it shows all the features that the harp seal possesses, the photo clearly shows the main distinguishing feature - it's pronounced strips on both sides on the back. In males, it is more pronounced than in females of this species. The shape of the strips resembles a crescent moon, the color is dark brown. While the color of the seal fur is gray. Strips join in the area of the sacrum in the upper back. By the way, the head also has a color different from the main shade - brown, this is another distinctive feature of such an animal as the harp seal, the photo of which you see in our article.

Dimensions

The second thing that I would like to note is the rather large size of such a northern representative. The length of the harp seal is not less than 180 centimeters, the optimal size is from 180 to 185 cm. Of course, there are both larger specimens up to 190 cm, and relatively small ones - 160 centimeters.

Many representatives of the animal world have sharp differences in the size of males and females. In the case of the considered species, there is practically no difference. The females of this seal can not be much smaller than males. The weight of these animals ranges from 140 to 160 kilograms.

A large proportion in the formation of body weight is a significant fat layer. A thick layer of fat is a kind of guarantee of health. It allows you to withstand unbearably low temperatures, which are not uncommon for Arctic waters. In addition, fat gives the most perfect streamlining to the body of these animals. And this fact directly affects the speed of movement of the animal in the water and other parameters in swimming.

How does the harp seal migrate?

The type of migration of this species will be considered below. Now note the fact that the harp seal is almost always in the process of migration, it constantly moves along the edge of the Arctic ice. In the static - relatively fixed position - it is located only under one of three conditions: during mating, during the production of cubs, and also during molting.

Migration of such animals is associated with migration from the open sea to stationary rookeries. The females of this representative of the fauna practically till the very moment of the birth of the children swim in the arctic waters. The births of the harp seal occur literally in early March. Place for the product of the offspring should be spacious, durable and with a thick snow cover.

After giving birth, females get into special flocks similar to "manger", only they are huge in size. The most scientific name is the puppies. Here in such conditions a harp seal appears, interesting facts about this animal we will tell you a little later. So, the first week of life the female lies with the baby, later, after 7-10 days, it starts to go out into the open sea and spends most of its time in the water, on the ice goes only for milk feeding.

Interesting Facts

The first is that twins are born very rarely, mainly one cub is produced for light. Its dimensions are as follows: length - 1 meter, weight - about 8 kilograms. After birth, the baby harp seal harvests about 2 kilograms a day. The main nutrients are transmitted with the mother's milk, which is very fatty, in fact, this contributes to a quick set of weight.

Another interesting fact is related to molting bald. Moulting this harmless animal is a long and painful process, which takes place at the end of March. In addition to the hair, the skin itself is renewed. During moult, the animal loses weight heavily, because it practically does not eat. At the end of this activity and with the resumption of an active lifestyle, weight is quickly restored.

It is important to know!

The harp seal is an amazing animal, harmless, which hunts only on the fish that live in its habitats. There are practically no enemies in an Arctic cold water inhabitant, the main mammals that represent a danger are polar bears and killer whales. But for the first, it's hard enough to catch a seal on the ice because of its maneuverability. The killer whales rarely present a danger to these animals because of their habitat. Usually when killer whales come into the waters, the seals already migrate to a safer place.

The main danger for such animals is a man - this is unconditional and undoubted. Damage to the population of harp seals is caused by humans, both directly and indirectly. Such animals are exterminated directly for the sake of valuable fat. But this fishery is limited by quotas, allowing to save the population. Much more terrible is the excessive extraction of fish. After all, it is she who is the main ration for bald, by the way, and not only for them.

Now you know who the harp seal is, what it feeds and where it lives. In addition, we told you some interesting facts.