There are 18 species of true seals, according to Seals World. The nostrils on them are a V shape which is a characteristic you won’t find with any other species of seal out there. Nostrils appear distinctively V-shaped. Harbor seals give birth between mid March and mid May to a single pup that weighs 20-24 pounds. The average weight of an adult seal depends on the seal species; for example, Atlantic harbor seals weigh an average of 150 to 300 pounds. Diet. While harbor seals swim safely in the surf, they will often curiously watch humans walking on beaches. Bull elephant seals average about 1,360 to 2,500 kg (3,000 to 5,500 pounds), while females range in weight from 360 to 545 kg (800 to 1200 pounds). This may be caused by an accumulation of trace elements such as iron or selenium in the ocean or a change in the hair follicle. Full-term pups are born well-developed and able to swim at birth. They vary significantly in color and can be dark brown, tan, or various shades of gray. Harbor seal pups weigh As opportunistic feeders, harbor seals eat sole, flounder, sculpin, hake, cod, herring, octopus and squid. Females weigh up to 200 pounds and are generally 4.5 feet long. In San Francisco Bay, many harbor seals are fully or partially reddish in color. Including the head and flippers, they may reach an adult length of 1.85 meters (6.1 ft) and a weight of 55 to 168 kg (120 to 370 lb). Female harbor seals become sexually mature at 3-5 years and males at 5-6 years. As with other true seals, there is no pinna(ear flap). They favor nearshore coastal waters and are often seen on rocky islands, sandy beaches, mudflats, bays and estuaries. Harbor seals have short, dog-like snouts. Pacific harbor seals are found north of the equator in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Harbor Seals need to eat up to 5% of their body weight in food each day to keep at a healthy weight. Pacific harbor seals spend about half their time on land and half in water. Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio. In fact, if disturbed too often, they have been known to abandon favorite haul-out sites or even their own pups. Adult female harbor seals are slightly smaller, ranging in size from 4 to 5.5 feet in length and weighing in 200 to 250 pounds. An ear canal may be visible behind the eye. Size. Visit the harbor seals at the Aquarium to see if you can tell them apart. In the Pacific, they can be found in areas ranging from Alaska to Baja California, Mexico. They grow to be about 3.9-5.6 feet in length and … Harbor seals haul out throughout the year, that is, they come out of the sea onto terrestrial grounds on icebergs or land. Harbor seals are the most abundant marine mammal living in Puget Sound and it’s almost impossible to tell a male from a female just by looking at them. The Harbor Seal is fairly small when it is compared to the many other species of seals out there. Diet. Males are slightly larger than females, and seals in Alaska and the Pacific Ocean are generally larger than those found in the Atlantic Ocean. The ASLC has been a part of various research projects to find answers for these declines. Harbor seals eat 7-10% of their body weight daily, preying on several species of fish and squid including pollack, flounder, cod and herring. Keepers train the seals to present body parts for inspection, move throughout the habitat, and wiggle their flippers. The seals also voluntarily accept eye drops and allow keepers and veterinarians to apply ointments. Gestation. Harbor seals are opportunistic feeders and they are not fussy eaters. The average weight of a male harbor seal is about 300 pounds and they are about 6 feet long, while a male California sea lion weighs on average 700-800 pounds and is 7-8 feet long. ); Female: 60 to 110 kg (130 to 240 lb.) Three to four weeks later, after the pup is weaned, mating takes place. After about four weeks, the pups are weaned from their mother’s milk. The harbor seal is a rather small marine mammal, only getting up to 1.5 to 1.8 m (five to six feet) in length and 115 kg (250 pounds) in weight, whereas elephant seals are much larger. They use oxygen already in their blood and muscles while under water, and their heartbeat slows from about 100 beats per minute to 10. Harbor seals generally molt 2 to 3 months after pupping, leading to high numbers of them in haul-out locations. Lifespan Download the audio file. Seal pups are about 2 to 3 feet long at birth, weighing 15 to 25 lbs. Harbor seal populations are relatively stable worldwide, but have shown declines of around 80% over the past 30 years in the arctic regions. However, they are wary of people while on land and will rush into the water if approached too closely or disturbed. They sometimes also sleep in the water. Weight: Male: 176 – 374 lbs (79.8 – 169.6 kg) / female: 132 – 319 pounds (59.9 – 144.7 kg) Fun Facts. It wasn’t long until he transitioned to eating whole fish and learning how to dive and catch them on his own—important skills Bogey would have learned from his mother in the wild. This provides the benefit of sites for birthing, rest and thermoregulation, and avoiding predators. Pacific harbor seals have spotted coats in a variety of shades ranging from white or silver-gray to black or dark brown. Seal pups are also hunted by raptors and smaller mammals like foxes and coyotes. Harbor Porpoise ... and MULTIPLE LOOPS of good quality rope are used to distribute the body weight. As a true, or “crawling,” seal, harbor seals have ear holes and small flippers that help them move on land by flopping along on their bellies, also known as “galumphing.”. They can reach five to six feet (1.5-1.8 meters) in length. Males are slightly larger than females, but on average harbor seals reach 5 to 6 feet in length and weigh up to 300 pounds. It also has noticeable claws for scratching, grooming, and defense. Males are slightly larger than females. Males are larger with lengths of 1.4 – 2.0 m (4.6 – 6.6 ft) and weights from 70 to 170 kg (154 to 375 lb). A stranded harbor seal with a large bleeding wound under his left front flipper and an open injury on the same flipper was found on the beach in Strathmere on Feb. 4. Each fore flipper has five digits and is covered with hair. This birth mass is greater than that of harbor seals on an absolute basis, but relative to maternal size is about 40% less than that of harbor seals. In one breath a seal can exchange 90% of the air in its lungs. After a 10-month gestation period, females give birth in June to a single pup. Pups can swim within minutes of birth and within a few days are able to dive for up to two minutes. Fem… In 2009, it was estimated that about 34,000 of them live in California. Harbor Seal ; Cetaceans . Physiological Responses to Treating Malnutrition in Harbor Seal Pups, Enrichment as a Tool for Rehabilitating Harbor Seals. The Marine Mammal Center cares about your privacy. Seal milk is very high in fat, allowing pups to double in size and develop the layers of blubber they need to stay warm. Females are smaller than males, growing to an average length of 4.5 feet (1.4 m) and average weight of 220 pounds (100 kg). Pacific harbor seal pup Bogey was found alone just below the ninth hole of the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links. After months of care, Bogey was released back to his ocean home with other harbor seals his age. In Alaska, they breed in July through August. A harbor seal’s flippers are short and webbed. The two male harbor seals at the aquarium usually weigh the most during the winter and lose some weight in the summer as the water temperature increases. Many are weaned 8–12 months later at about 95 kg, a proportional weight gain twice that of harbor seals but over a time period of about 14 times longer. Male harbor seals grow to an average length of 5.6 feet (1.7 m) and average weight of 265 pounds (120 kg). Average weight for adults is about 180 pounds (82 kg); males are somewhat larger than females and can weigh up to 285 pounds (129 kg). Their population in Alaska is considered depleted. Harbor seals molt (shed their hair) each year after the breeding season. Harbor seals weigh up to 285 pounds and measure up to 6 feet in length. ). A newborn pup can swim at birth, but will sometimes ride on its mother's back when tired. The largest is the southern elephant seal. Size and Weight - Adult male harbor seals range in size from 4 to 6 feet in length and weigh 200 to 300 pounds. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you! Predators and Other Threats to the Harbor Seal. The Marine Mammal Center advances global ocean conservation through rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research, and education. Email Us, Board of Fisheries and Game: Actions & Activities, Threatened, Endangered, and Diversity Program, Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), About the Division of Commercial Fisheries, Western Alaska Salmon Stock Identification Program (WASSIP), Online General Season & Registration Permits, Subsistence and Personal Use Fishing Permits, CSIS – Community Subsistence Information System, The Technical Papers and Special Publications Series. The seal admitted Wednesday had been observed on a beach for several days before people realized it was losing weight. Once at our hospital, Bogey was fed a nutritious fish-mash smoothie five times a day. Males can weigh 150 to 300 pounds and grow up to 6 feet long. The harbor seals have a rich training program that keeps them physically and mentally healthy. Harbor seals have a total gestation of about 9 to 11 months. The average weight of a female harbor seal is about 200 pounds and they are about 5 feet long, while a female sea lion weighs on average 225 pounds and is 6 feet long. The worldwide harbor seal population is estimated to be 500,000 individuals. According to a press release from the SeaLife Center, Dutch Harbor is outside of the normal range for ringed seals. Unlike humans, harbor seals breathe out before diving. They can dive to 1,500 feet for up to 40 minutes, although their average dive lasts three to seven minutes and is typically shallow. (11 kg). Fishes and squid. Read our privacy policy. Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. Harbor seals are the seals with the largest geographical range, they are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Baltic and North Seas. The animal was monitored on the beach for several days with the help of local volunteers, and it became evident that the seal was losing weight. 2 Like other true seals, harbor seals do not have external ears and cannot use their hind flippers to move on land. Predators of the harbor seal are primarily the sharks, orcas, polar bears, walruses, and sometimes sea lions. Harbor Seal Facts At A Glance. Pacific harbor seals are sexually mature at three to five years of age. Other Name(s): Common seal Scientific name: Phoca vitulina Type of Animal: Mammal Animal Family: Phocidae (the true seal / earless seal family) Where Found: Coastal waters of the Northern Hemisphere Length Male: 6 to 1.9 m (5.2 to 6.2 ft.); Female: 1.5 to 1.7 m (4.9 to 5.6 ft.) Weight Male: 70 to 150 kg (154 to 330 lb. (170 kg). Harbor seals have gray or brown fur with dark and light spots, and each one looks different from the others. Males are massive, weighing up to If born prematurely, harbor seals retain a whitish fluffy lanugo coat, which is usually shed in utero before birth. The pup typically doubles in weight during its first month of life due to the high fat content of its mother’s milk is (40% fat vs. 4.5% in humans). PUPPING In South Puget Sound, harbor seal pups are born late June through September (map for pupping timeframes in Washington State) and weigh about 18-30 pounds.If born prematurely or early in the birthing season, harbor seals retain a whitish lanugo coat (which is usually lost before birth). While it’s not certain how Bogey ended up alone, many harbor seal pups are orphaned due to humans or dogs getting too close and scaring the pup’s mother away. Female harbor seals, as with many species, are smaller in size, but only by a minor size and weight difference. Pups are about 30 to 39 inches (75-100 cm) long at birth and weigh approximately 24 lbs. They vary in color from brownish black to tan or grey; underparts are generally lighter. Adult harbor seal can reach 4 to 6 feet (1.2 -1.9 m) in length and weighs up to 375 lbs. The harbor seal, also known as the common seal is a species of a seal. The body and flippers are short, heads are rounded. Gestation includes a period of delayed implantation: when the fertilized egg divides into a hollow ball of cells one layer thick (blastocyst), it stops growing and remains free-floating in the uterus for one-and-a-half to three months. Normally weights, lengths and other measurements are recorded using a METRIC SCALE (eg kilograms, centimeters, millimeters, etc. Female elephant seals have an average weight of 900 to 1,800 pounds, and male elephant seals average approximately 3,000 to 5,000 pounds, but can weigh as much as 8,800 pounds. Harbor Seal – Phoca vitulina Description. In California, harbor seal pups are born between February and April and weigh about 20 to 24 pounds at birth. 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