Marine mammals harbor seal

When it comes to harbor seals, do you naturally think of the cheetah, a great runner? Are harbor seals as ferocious as cheetahs? Are they related to cheetahs? What are their living habits? Let's find out with me!

1. Cute and adorable appearance

The spotted seal, Phoca largha, is a species of the Carnivora order and the Phoca largha family. It is named because of its cheetah-like pattern on its body. It was renamed the "Western Pacific spotted seal" in the new version of the National Key Protected Wildlife List and upgraded to a national first-class protected wildlife. The spotted seal has a spindle-shaped body, a smooth little head, and there seems to be no dividing line between the neck and the body. It is round like a big fat man, with big round eyes and watery eyes. It does not look fierce at all, and looks very soft and cute. It is really a "leopard" in name only. The limbs of the spotted seal are not long and cannot bend, especially the forelimbs are smaller, and the hind limbs are slightly fat and extend backwards, and cannot bend forward. Therefore, it can be imagined that such limbs are not conducive to their walking on land. However, with their spindle-shaped bodies, spotted seals can be regarded as swimming champions! Each of their "sole" has five toes, and the toes are connected by membranes to form flippers, which are shaped like a fan, so when they stretch their hands and feet, it is very conducive to swimming in the water. The fur of a baby harbor seal just born from its mother's belly is white. After about two weeks, the white fur on its body begins to fall off, and after four weeks it is replaced by new spotted fur. The fur color also changes with age, from dark to light as it grows.

Cute and adorable harbor seal | Photo provided by Zhang Jihua

2. Marine mammals

Spotted seals are related to carnivores such as wolves and tigers to a certain extent. They are marine mammals and are not "vegetarians". They mainly feed on fish and cephalopods. Spotted seals are widely distributed, distributed in the temperate and cold temperate coastal areas and coasts, mainly in the northern and western waters of the North Pacific Ocean and its coasts and islands, such as the Bering Sea, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Sea of ​​Japan, the Bohai Sea, etc., and can migrate long distances across the sea. In my country, the Liaodong Bay of the Bohai Sea is an important habitat and breeding ground for spotted seals. In addition, spotted seals are a kind of social animal. Usually they always live together in groups of 100 or 80, and they mainly communicate by sound. As a mammal, spotted seals are viviparous, and only one is born in a litter, with a gestation period of about 11 months. The mother of the spotted seal gives birth to her baby on the ice and breastfeeds until the baby seal is full-month old. When the fur of the baby seal grows to be basically the same as that of an adult spotted seal, they can leave their mother and start living independently.

Mammals in the ocean—harbor seals | Photo courtesy of Zhang Jihua

3. The superb skills of "Tu Feiyuan"

The round and chubby bodies of spotted seals make people give them a nickname - "Tu Fei Yuan". Although "Tu Fei Yuan" is slow and clumsy on land, it swims very fast in the water! They can swim up to 27 kilometers per hour, which is about the same as the swimming speed of many cetaceans. In addition, I don't know if you have ever encountered this situation in the aquarium. You clearly saw the exhibition pool marked with "Spotted Seal", but you didn't find it after searching for a circle. Only when you look carefully can you find that it is diving at the bottom of the pool! It is said that spotted seals can dive to a depth of about 300 meters in the sea, and dive up to 30 or 40 times a day. Each time, they can stay for 20 minutes without surfacing for breathing, which shows that their diving ability is super strong. As mentioned earlier, spotted seals mainly communicate through sound, so they are particularly sensitive to sound and can use different sounds to locate, communicate, choose mates and find food. For example, the mother spotted seal will make special sounds to guide the baby seal to follow her, and the baby spotted seal will make sounds to cater to the mother as soon as it is born to keep in touch with the mother. In addition, the cute big eyes of harbor seals are not only good-looking, but also have excellent vision. The lenses of their eyes are large and round, which can adapt well whether in water or on land.

Call me "fat and ugly" | Photo provided by Zhang Jihua

4. Action to protect harbor seals

In order to protect the precious endangered species of spotted seals, the country has carried out a series of work: in 1989, the spotted seal was listed as a national second-class protected animal, and in 2021 it was upgraded to a national first-class protected animal to strengthen species protection; nature reserves such as Dalian and Shandong Miaodao Islands were established to strengthen the protection of spotted seal habitats; the "Spotted Seal Conservation Action Plan (2017-2026)" was issued, and a ten-year spotted seal protection work goal task was formulated at the national level, and the Spotted Seal Conservation Alliance was established to attract extensive participation from all sectors of society in protection work; law enforcement and supervision were strengthened. In 2019, Dalian cracked a major spotted seal poaching case and severely punished illegal and criminal acts; scientific research, popular science propaganda, rescue, and release work were carried out, and you can often see online reports on the rescue and release of spotted seals into the sea by relevant competent authorities.

In the context of building an ecological civilization and a beautiful China, let us work together to protect these cute spotted seals and allow these lovely companions to live in harmony with us humans.

Author: Liu Ning