Characteristics and living habits of seals

In the seal pool in the seaside park, the seals swim and play in the water all day long. They are lively and cute. If trained, it can also perform performances such as playing ball. The seal has a round body, mottled body color, and sparse fur. Subcutaneous fat is very thick, making the body look fat. The two hind legs are always stretched back, like the two flippers of a diver. When swimming, swing your feet left and right in the water to push your body forward quickly. The seal's body is not large, only 1.5-2 meters long. The largest individual weighs 150 kilograms. The female is slightly smaller, weighing about 120 kilograms. Under natural conditions, seals sometimes wander in the sea and sometimes come ashore to rest. Large groups of seals are often seen in places such as Panshan River Estuary in Liaoning Province and Miaodao Islands in Shandong Province.

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The harbor seal is also known as the Western Pacific harbor seal, fur seal, and cheek-ribbed beast. The body is fat, round and spindle-shaped, the head is round and smooth, the eyes are large, the snout is short and wide, and there are sparse tentacles. There is no outer ear shell, and the neck is short, thick and round. The forelimbs can move forward, with the first toe being the longest and shortening in sequence toward the fifth toe. The hind limbs stretch straight back and cannot bend forward, and the two outer toes are longer than the three inner toes. All limbs are webbed and equipped with claws. The claws on the forelimbs are well developed and the claws on the hind limbs are significantly degenerated. The tail is short and tucked between the hind limbs.

The adult body is densely covered with short brown hairs, scattered with brown spots, with more spots on the back than on the ventral surface, the sides of the body are light in color, and the ventral surface is yellowish white. Newborn cubs are covered with white down, and after weaning they shed their hair to the adult color. Male animals can reach 2.14 meters in length and weigh 150 kilograms. Females can reach 1.82 meters in length and weigh 120 kilograms. Newborn cubs are 74 to 90 centimeters long and weigh 6 to 10 kilograms.

They give birth on ice and do not gather in large groups during the breeding period. Most of the time, the male and female live together on a single ice block until after the birth, the animals form a "family group" with their offspring.

The calving period of harbor seals in the Liaodong Bay breeding area is from January to February, and the peak period is in late January. Newborn cubs are covered with 3 cm long white down, and begin to shed their fetal hair around 20 days after birth, which takes about 9 days to complete. The lactation period is about 1 month. Mating takes place in the water before the young are weaned. The age of sexual maturity is 3 to 4 years for males and 3 to 5 years for females.

The main food is fish, but also cephalopods and crustaceans. Mainly distributed in my country's Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea, Liaodong Bay is the breeding area, and occasionally found in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

animal tags： seal