I created this page for the love of seals. We all know the terrible acts that are happening now in Canada but I wanted one site to go to that depicts images of seals living happily. If you want to learn more information about the plight of the harp seal go to my other page on myspace by clicking the friend "baby seal". This site is only for happy images of harp seals, the way god intended them to live. I will be adding more more pictures as time permits. If you would like to send me a link to any sites that I can get happy photographs from that I can use on this site please email me! Also, if you post a comment with a picture of a cute litle seal I may even steal the it and add it to my page! This page is only for seal lovers.div align="center" Type: Mammal
Diet: Carnivore
Average lifespan in the wild: 30 years
Size: 5.25 to 6.25 ft (1.6 to 1.9 m)
Weight: 400 lbs (180 kg)
Group name: Colony or rookery
Protection status: Threatened
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Each spring the vast ice floes off Labrador and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence come alive with the arrival of adult female harp seals. There they give birth, each usually to a single pup (twins are uncommon). These pups, known as whitecoats at the time of birth, were until recently the focus of an annual hunt that antedates the time of Jacques Cartier.
Harp seals owe their name to the irregular horseshoe-shaped band of black straddling the back in the adult male. This band, or "harp", unites across the shoulders, curves down toward the abdominal region and the back up toward the posterior flippers where it abruptly disappears. The background colour of the pelt is steel blue when wet and pale grey when dry. The head and tail are black, while the anterior flippers and belly are whitish. Adult females are similarly patterned, except that the "harp", the head, and the tail are usually somewhat lighter in colour. Some adult females have irregular dark grey spots on the back with no clearly defined "harp".
Harp seals are highly gregarious marine mammals, hauling themselves out of the water on to the ice in dense herds to bear their young, to mate and to moult. They also migrate and feed in loose herds of up to several hundred individuals.
Newborn pups are about 85 cm long, weigh about 11 kg and are yellowish in colour. In about 3 days the fur turns to a fluffy white from which the pups derive the name "whitecoats". Young harp seals rank among the fastest growing and most precocious of young mammals. They are nursed for about 12 days and then abandoned by their mothers. During this period they more than triple their weight on milk which contains up to 45% fat (compared to 4% for cow's milk). When weaned, pups weigh an average of 35 kg. More than half of this weight is fat in the form of blubber.
During lactation, pups nurse for periods of about 10 minutes six or seven times a day. Pups usually initiate nursing by giving what has been termed a female attraction call to indicate to their mothers that they are hungry. Only 5% of the pup's time is spent nursing or otherwise interacting with its mother. Pups spend most of their time (up to 80%) resting or sleeping. Except for the first 2 days following birth when mothers are constantly with their pup, females regularly leave their pup alone on the ice. It seems astonishing that mothers can find their own pups among so many. They do this by the odour and perhaps the call of the pup.
After the pups are abandoned by their mothers, they begin to lose weight and to moult their white coats. Partially moulted pups are called "ragged jackets". After about 18 days this coat is completely shed and is replaced with a short silvery one, flecked with small dark spots along each side and sparsely flecked on the back. The pups are now called "beaters". Harp seal pups fast for four to five weeks following weaning during which they lose about 10 kg of body weight. It is not clear why harp seals have evolved this remarkable pattern of pup development, which also seems to be characteristic of other species in the Family Phocidae. Most likely the fast is necessary to provide the pup with time to develop the behavioural and physical abilities that are necessary for efficient foraging by these young mammals.
Each year, beginning in early April, harp seals moult. Adult males and immatures, called "bedlamers", moult first, followed by adult females, which start to moult about the third week of April. During the approximately 4 weeks of moulting, harp seals rarely feed and as a result lose more than 20 % of their body weight mainly in the form of fat. Aher they have moulted, adults and immatures migrate to their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic, thus completing their annual cycle.
While the older animals are moulting, beaters begin to feed, mainly on small crustaceans and small fish. They actively seek the ice and gradually move northwards, reaching west Greenland in early to mid June where they spend the summer.
