Sea hare, or bearded seal

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

One of the largest species of seals living in the Arctic Ocean is the sea hare, or bearded seal. It lives in almost all Arctic seas and adjacent waters. Lakhtak can be found on the eastern shore of the East Siberian Sea, on the Chukchi Sea, at Cape Borrow, in the waters of Svalbard, Severnaya Zemlya. In addition, these animals live in the shallow waters of the Kara, Barents and White Seas. Lakhtak took a fancy to most of the Sea of Okhotsk and even reached the coast of South Sakhalin. It can also be found in the waters of the North Atlantic, as well as off the western and eastern coasts of Greenland. Some individuals sometimes, not of their own free will, even migrate to the North Pole region, where they are carried on ice floes.

What does a bearded seal look like? It has a rather massive body, against which the head and flippers seem small. The length of adult representatives of this species is from 2.2 to 3 m, depending on the habitat, and its weight can be up to 360 kg. Lakhtak has a slightly elongated muzzle and a shortened neck. adultsdiffer in a monochromatic brownish-gray back, which becomes light gray below. Many individuals have a kind of belt along the back - a dark strip with fuzzy contours. Females and males have the same color.

The sea hare has a pronounced feature that distinguishes it from other seals - large thick and long labial vibrissae (a kind of mustache) of a smooth and even shape. The rest of the hairline is coarse and relatively sparse. Newborn seals have a grey-brown soft coat that resembles a fur coat. On the head of animals there are whitish spots. The third toe on the front flippers is the longest. The teeth are quite small, which leads to their rapid erasure. That is why they protrude slightly from the gums in adults.

The bearded seal does not make any seasonal long-term migrations. Basically, these animals are considered a sedentary species, although they constantly move over short distances. Depending on the habitat, they can move both actively and passively (on ice). On ice floes, they are usually located one by one, in rare cases their number reaches up to three individuals. The seal does not jump onto the ice, it climbs on it with jerks, which it does with the help of hitting the water with its rear flippers. In autumn, you can observe large coastal rookeries.

The sea hare hunts bottom and bottom animals, mainly at a depth of up to 60 meters. There are rare cases when seals descend to a depth of 150 meters. dietdepends on the habitat. More than 70 species of animals, including crustaceans, mollusks, worms, and various fish, become food objects for seals of this species. In most cases, the diet is mixed food.

Mating of adults occurs on ice floes after the lactation period. The pregnancy has been going on for almost a year. Puppy occurs from March to May. For those seals that live in the Sea of Okhotsk, it ends a month earlier, and in the Canadian Archipelago and the Bering Sea - only in May. A newborn bearded seal is covered with thick dark brown fur that lasts no more than three weeks. The length of his body is 120 cm. The mother feeds the baby with her milk for only 4 weeks.

By nature, this type of seal is a rather good-natured animal that does not show any aggression. Surprisingly, males do not conflict even during the mating season.