Seal: Graceful Guardians of the Ocean’s Depths
Introduction:
Seals are muscular, flexible marine mammals that belong to the pinniped family of animals. This group also includes whales and sea lions. They are found in virtually all oceans and coastal areas of the earth. They are known for their playfulness, long bodies, and excellent swimming abilities in water. They have an important role to play in marine ecosystems, as they act both as predators and prey within food chains. For instance, this article provides detailed information about them, such as their habitats, what they look like, and some of their actions.
Amazing Facts:
Some interesting things about them:
- Many Species: These range from small ringed them to massive southern elephant seals with 33 species of them.
- Deep Swimmers: They are capable of going up to 3,000 feet (914 meters) underwater while holding breaths for as many as 90 minutes.
- Streamlined Bodies: With a streamlined torpedo-shaped body and powerful flippers, they make wonderful swimmers.
- Effective Hunters: Fishing is not a problem for them because they rely on their sensetive whiskers that detect water movements, which guide them to sources of food hidden within deep ocean waters.
- Water-Land Mammals: They spend much time in the water, although when tired they can rest on land or ice, breed, or moult.
Habitat and Diet:
Habitat:
- Polar Regions: The Arctic and Antarctic ice waters are home to harp seals, Weddell seals, etc.
- Temperate Oceans: Harbour seals and grey seals are found on the coastlines of temperate regions.
- Tropical Waters: Aside from the Hawaiian monk seal, there’re many other endangered species that can be spotted in warm tropical waters.
- Freshwater Systems: The Baikal seal is one example of them living in freshwater lakes.
Food:
They are carnivorous, and their diets reflect this:
- Fish: Their main prey compose fish like anchovy, herring, and codfish, among others.
- Squid & Octopus: Many species favour cephalopods as a food of choice.
- Crustaceans: Small seals especially rely on crabs, shrimp, krill, and other types of crustaceans as their primary source of food.
- Penguins sometimes too: Leopard seals often hunt penguins in Antarctica.
Appearance:
Depending on the species they belong to, there is a huge variety in terms of size, shape, and colour for them.
- Size: They come in different sizes, ranging from ringed seals, which measure 3 feet (1 meter) long and weigh about 100 pounds (45 kilogrammes), to southern elephant seals, known to span more than 20 feet (6 meters) long, weighing up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms).
- Fur and Skin: Their fur can be silvery grey, brown, or spotted, allowing them to blend with their environments in water.
- Body Shapes: Designed for effective swimming, they are smooth-skinned and have the shape of missiles.
- Flippers: They use strong hind flippers to move forward, while steering is done by short webbed foreflippers.
- Faces: They have got a huge pair of eyes, which they show emotions with, as well as whiskers that are used for predator detection.
Types/Subspecies of Seals:
They are divided into two main groups:
- Earless Seals (True Seals, Family: Phocidae):
- They do not have visible external ear openings.
- When on water, they propel themselves using hind flippers, and when on land, they look clumsy.
Examples:
- Harp Seal: Its white pups live in Arctic waters.
- Weddell Seal: A diving animal living deep in Antarctic oceans.
- Gray Seal: It has an elongated head found in North Atlantic waters.
- Eared Seals (Sea Lions and Fur Seals, Family: Otariidae).
They have easily seen external ears that flap Their foreflippers help them swim better compared to moving on ground.
Examples:
- California Sea Lion: Common along the Pacific Coast, known for its playful behavior.
- Steller Sea Lion: North Pacific Ocean hosts the largest eared seal species
- South American Fur Seal: This species is located in South America’s coastal regions.
Threats and Predators:
Nature:
They encounter multiple predators while in their aquatic home:
Killer Whales: Seals’ predominant predator.
Polar Bears: Prey on them, especially in Arctic regions.
Sharks: Tigers and white sharks prey extensively on them.
Leopard seals: They too are predators, hunting smaller seal species and penguins.
Threats:
Human activities present huge challenges to seal populations.
- Climate Change: Melting sea ice limits the habitat of ice-dependent species like harp seals.
- Fishing Nets: This can result in them getting caught up in fishing gear, resulting into injuries or deaths
- Pollution: Oil spills as well as plastic waste may either directly harm them or affect the sources of food that they eat, thereby making it a threat to them
- Hunting: Although commercial sealing has decreased significantly, some types of them are still hunted for their fur, meat and blubber
Mating and Reproduction:
Mating:
- During the mating season, dominant males mate with several females at once, thereby making them polygamous animals.
- Males often fight brutally for control of harem groups.
Reproduction:
- After 9–11 months’ gestation period, which sometimes includes delayed implantation to match peak condition births, the female bears one pup at a time.
- On land or ice, pups are born, but they receive highly fatty milk that makes them grow fat quickly.
Parental Care:
- Mothers are very protective and will often go without food for weeks to months while nursing.
- Pups learn how to swim and hunt alone after being weaned.
How They Communicate
Vocalisations:
- Barks and Roars: Make them produce loud sounds to establish their positions as dominant males and attract females.
- Whimpers and Grunts: These are common between mothers and pups, who use them for staying in touch with one another.
- Underwater Calls: Some of them utter eerie underwater noises during courtship or breeding displays.
Body Language:
- Flipper Slaps: Submission or aggression can be expressed through flipper slaps among them.
- Scent Marking: Territorial scent marking by male eared seals is a characteristic of the breeding season.
Movies featuring Them:
People have been so interested in them; thus, they have appeared in different movies and documentaries.
- The Seal Who Loved Me (2004): A documentary that reveals the relationship between these animals and researchers.
- Andre (1994): A family film based on a true story about a port seal that became friends with a family in Maine.
- There’s Something Fishy About Seaspiracy (2021): The film emphasises the dangers of human activities to marine mammals.
- Frozen Planet (2011): stunning footage from arctic and Antarctic regions with various species of them.
How would you pronounce it?
“Seal” is pronounced differently around the globe.
- English: /siːl/
- Spanish: /foca/
- French: /phoque/
- German: /Seehund/
- Italian: /foca/
- Mandarin Chinese: /海豹 (Hǎibào)/
- Japanese: /アザラシ (Azarashi)/
- Russian: /тюлень (Tyulenʹ)/
- Arabic: /فقمة (Faqma)/
- Hindi: /सील (Seel)/
FAQs:
Q. Where do they live?
A. Globally, they can be found inhabiting oceans, coastal areas, and freshwater lakes from polar regions to tropical waters.
Q. What do they eat?
A. Some of this diet includes fish. They are carnivorous and feed on fish, squid, crustaceans, and at times penguins, among several others.
A: Hawaiian monk seals are critically endangered, but harbour seal populations remain stable.
Q: How long does a seal stay underwater?
A: Presently, the longest duration one can hold its breath is 90 minutes, with most immobilisation periods essentially ranging between 10-30 minutes.
Q: Which species of seal is the largest?
A: The southern elephant seal is bigger than all others; it may measure more than twenty feet long and weigh up to eight thousand eight hundred pounds.