Common Seals
The Common or Harbour Seal is the most widely distributed species of pinniped, a diverse group of carnivorous, fin-footed, semi-aquatic marine mammals comprising the walrus, the eared seals such as sea lions and fur seals and the earless seals or true seals.
The Common Seal possesses a unique pattern of spots, either dark on a light background or light on a dark background. It varies in colour from brownish black to tan or grey although underparts are generally lighter. The body and flippers are short, the head is rounded and the nostrils appear distinctively V-shaped. Blubber under the skin helps to maintain body temperature. Including the head and flippers, the Common Seal may reach an adult length of 6.1 feet and a weight of 120 to 370 pounds. Females are generally smaller than males.
There are an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 Common Seals worldwide. While the population is not threatened as a whole, the Greenland, Hokkaidō and Baltic Sea populations are exceptions. Local populations have been reduced or eliminated through disease and unintentional and intentional conflict with humans. It is legal to kill seals perceived to threaten fisheries in the UK, Norway and Canada but commercial hunting is illegal. Seals are also taken in subsistence hunting and accidentally as bycatch.
The Common Seal sticks to familiar resting spots or haul out sites, generally rocky areas (although ice, sand and mud may also be used), where it is protected from adverse weather conditions and predation, near a foraging area. It may spend several days at sea and travel up to 30 miles in search of feeding grounds although it will also congregate in harbours, sandy intertidal zones and estuaries and swim some distance upstream into fresh water in large rivers. The Common Seal feeds primarily on fish and occasionally shrimps, crabs, molluscs and squid.
The Common Seal is often solitary but it is gregarious when hauled out and during the breeding season although it does not form groups as large as some other seals.
Both courtship and mating occur underwater and females give birth annually with a gestation period of approximately 9 months. The timing of the pupping season varies with location, occurring in February for populations in lower latitudes and as late as July in the sub Arctic zone. The mothers are the sole providers of care and the single pups are born well developed, capable of swimming and diving within hours. Suckling for 3 to 4 weeks, pups feed on the mother's rich, fatty milk and grow rapidly and doubling their weight by the time of weaning.
Date: 25th June 2018
Location: Loch Fleet, Highland
The Common Seal possesses a unique pattern of spots, either dark on a light background or light on a dark background. It varies in colour from brownish black to tan or grey although underparts are generally lighter. The body and flippers are short, the head is rounded and the nostrils appear distinctively V-shaped. Blubber under the skin helps to maintain body temperature. Including the head and flippers, the Common Seal may reach an adult length of 6.1 feet and a weight of 120 to 370 pounds. Females are generally smaller than males.
There are an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 Common Seals worldwide. While the population is not threatened as a whole, the Greenland, Hokkaidō and Baltic Sea populations are exceptions. Local populations have been reduced or eliminated through disease and unintentional and intentional conflict with humans. It is legal to kill seals perceived to threaten fisheries in the UK, Norway and Canada but commercial hunting is illegal. Seals are also taken in subsistence hunting and accidentally as bycatch.
The Common Seal sticks to familiar resting spots or haul out sites, generally rocky areas (although ice, sand and mud may also be used), where it is protected from adverse weather conditions and predation, near a foraging area. It may spend several days at sea and travel up to 30 miles in search of feeding grounds although it will also congregate in harbours, sandy intertidal zones and estuaries and swim some distance upstream into fresh water in large rivers. The Common Seal feeds primarily on fish and occasionally shrimps, crabs, molluscs and squid.
The Common Seal is often solitary but it is gregarious when hauled out and during the breeding season although it does not form groups as large as some other seals.
Both courtship and mating occur underwater and females give birth annually with a gestation period of approximately 9 months. The timing of the pupping season varies with location, occurring in February for populations in lower latitudes and as late as July in the sub Arctic zone. The mothers are the sole providers of care and the single pups are born well developed, capable of swimming and diving within hours. Suckling for 3 to 4 weeks, pups feed on the mother's rich, fatty milk and grow rapidly and doubling their weight by the time of weaning.
Date: 25th June 2018
Location: Loch Fleet, Highland
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