Baikal seal lives. Why does the seal not breathe underwater and why does it need a sanatorium. Favorite habitats

Seals are a genus from the seal family. Sometimes seals are included in the genus of common seals. There are 3 species in the genus seals.

The ringed seal is found in the temperate and cold waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and in the Arctic Ocean; in Russia it lives in all northern seas, and also in the Bering and Okhotsk seas. The Caspian seal, or the Caspian seal, lives in the Caspian Sea. The Baikal seal, or the Baikal seal, inhabits Lake Baikal.

The uniqueness of the Baikal seal lies in the fact that it is the only mammal that lives on Lake Baikal. Belongs to the seal family. A rather large mammal, the body length reaches up to 140 cm, and the weight reaches a full 90 kg. Males are always larger and heavier than females. Even a newborn cub is particularly weighty; at birth, it weighs about 3 kilograms.

Appearance and behavior

The color is rather monotonous light gray on the back, closer to the belly, the transition to yellow begins. Such, dull at first glance, coloring perfectly masks the seal. In nature, she has no natural enemies, the only one who hunts her is a man.

The skin of the seal is considered the warmest and most practical, so the fishermen catch this animal. The indigenous inhabitants of Transbaikalia are happy to use the meat of the hunted seal for food.

The seal has very powerful paws crowned with strong nails, which allows it to tear apart a thin part of the ice in winter in order to breathe oxygen. The constant presence under water at dusk has formed a certain device of the eyes, they are rather convex, which allows the seal to easily get its own food. The seal can be under water for up to an hour, holding its breath for this period, it is an amazing swimmer, thanks to the increased concentration of hemoglobin, it can dive up to 300 meters deep.

Its natural habitat is water depths, despite its impressive dimensions, it is very maneuverable and dexterous in water, under water it can reach speeds of up to 25 km / h. But, like all seals, it is completely clumsy on land, in moments of danger, being on the shore, it can go to the races, which looks pretty funny.

Nutrition

The favorite food of the seal is the small and large golomyanka, long-winged goby, yellow-winged goby, sandy sculpin. Golomyankas occupy the main stage in the nutrition of seals. The seal eats from 3 to 5 kg of fish per day. And it takes 2-3 hours to digest food in the stomach.

reproduction

Females after 4 years of life are ready for mating and reproduction, but males are a little behind and mature a couple of years later. The mating season for seals lasts from late March to late April. At this time, the males make every effort to invite the female to the ice to mate. And if successful, a small seal will be born in 11 months. A natural feature is the delay in pregnancy for 2-3 months, that is, the fertilized egg may be in the fading stage, and only after this period, the female's pregnancy will begin to develop.

It is the female who takes care of the place of the future birth for her cubs, usually this is a lair in the snow, since the cubs appear in winter. After the birth of the baby, the seal mother will feed him with milk for 3 months. Baby seals are born completely dependent on their mother, their skin is painted white. During the feeding period, the mother will only go fishing for her own food, the female spends the rest of the time with the babies. When she is in the lair, the temperature there rises to +5, although outside it the temperature can drop to -15.

The ringed seal is so named for the light rings with a dark frame that make up the pattern of its coat. Adults reach a size of 135 cm and a weight of 70 kg.

Dimensions and appearance

The ringed seal is one of the smallest. The body length of an adult seal is up to 150 cm, the total weight usually does not exceed 50-60 kg. The body is relatively short and thick. The neck is short, the head is small, the muzzle is shortened. Vibrissae are flattened with wavy edges. The hairline of adult animals, as in other species, is short, hard, with a predominance of awns.

Adult coloration varies widely. Characterized by the presence of a large number of light rings scattered throughout the body. The general background of the coloration of the dorsal side of the body is dark, sometimes almost black, the ventral side is light, yellowish. There are no light rings on the flippers. Males and females are colored the same.

Habitat

The ringed seal is an inhabitant of the Arctic and subarctic waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, where it is found everywhere. It lives mainly in coastal shallow water areas. It also inhabits the Baltic Sea, lakes Ladoga and Saimaa.

In Russia, the seal is distributed from the Murmansk coast to the Bering Strait, including the White Sea, the waters of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya, and the New Siberian Islands. In the Far East, the ringed seal is called Akiba. In the Bering Sea, it lives along the western (where it descends to the south almost to Cape Lopatka in Kamchatka) and eastern (up to Bristol Bay) coasts, including the waters of the Commander and Aleutian Islands. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, it inhabits the entire coastal part, including numerous bays, as well as the coast of Eastern Sakhalin, the Sakhalin Bay and the Tatar Strait. Reaches the shores of the island of Hokkaido.

Outside our waters, the ringed seal lives off the coast of Northern Norway, Svalbard, the eastern (up to 75 degrees N) and western coasts of Greenland, in the northern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and near the island of Newfoundland. Inhabits almost the entire Canadian Arctic Archipelago, including Hudson Bay.

Migration in ringed seals is weakly expressed. Obviously, she comes the farthest to the north. She spends most of the year in ice-covered bays and fiords. In autumn, as the water freezes, the animal does not migrate south, but makes holes in the ice, to which it regularly swims up to breathe and rest. Usually, the seal spends 8-9 minutes under water, but if necessary, it may not rise to the surface for up to 20 minutes. It takes 45 seconds for a seal to stock up on a new portion of air.

reproduction

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Chukchi, in the White and Barents Seas, females give birth in the period from mid-March to mid-April, in the Baltic Sea and in Lake Ladoga - mainly in early March.

The cubs are born in a long, thick white coat, which is replaced, apparently, after 2 weeks. The length of the newborn is about 60 cm, weight up to 4 kg. Milk feeding lasts about one month. During this time, the body length of the cubs increases by approximately 10 cm, and the weight doubles. Then the growth rate slows down. By winter, the body weight of young seals reaches 12 kg, and its length is 80 cm or more. One-year-old seals have a body length of up to 84 cm, weight up to 14 kg.

The ringed seal is the only one of all seals that builds a nest for its young. In March or April, when the ice begins to break, the female makes a hole in a snowdrift with a tunnel leading to the water.

Females give birth to one baby pup. A characteristic distinguishing feature of this species is that in many cases the cubs that have lost their mother do not die, but survive, but their growth is greatly slowed down, and as a result they remain dwarfs.

Ringed seal females reach sexual maturity in most cases at the age of 5-6 years, and the first offspring are brought at the age of 6-7 years. Males start breeding mainly at the age of 6-7 years. In ringed seals, growth stops at the age of 10 years.

The food of the ringed seal is based on two groups of animals - fish and crustaceans, and only those that form large accumulations in the upper layers of the water.

Appearance

The body length of the Caspian seal is up to 150 cm, and its average weight is 70 kg. The body is relatively thick with a short length. The neck is not long, but noticeable, the head is small. The edges of the flattened vibrissae are wavy.

The color of this seal in animals of different ages and different sexes is different. There is a large individual variation in coloration. Basically, the upper surface of the body has a darkish background, the ventral surface is light gray. On the sides, the transition of tones is gradual. Dark gray, brownish, sometimes almost black spots of various sizes and shapes are randomly scattered throughout the body. Spotting is more pronounced on the back than on the belly. Males are more brightly and contrastingly colored than females.

Habitat

The Caspian seal lives only in the Caspian Sea, where it is found everywhere from the Northern Caspian to the coast of Iran. The northern half of the sea is generally more populated than the southern.

The Caspian seal makes regular seasonal, although not long, migrations. During the winter months, almost the entire population is concentrated in the ice zone of the Northern Caspian. As the ice disappears, the animals move to the south and by the beginning of summer they are widely distributed over the waters of the Middle and South Caspian. Here they feed heavily, and in early autumn they begin to move again to the Northern Caspian.

Nutrition

The basis of the diet of the Caspian seal is made up of various types of gobies. The second place in nutrition is occupied by sprat. In even smaller quantities, these seals eat atherina, shrimps, and amphipods. Of the valuable commercial fish, herring is sometimes found in their stomachs, which they eat in certain periods of the year in small quantities. The composition of food during the year changes little.

reproduction

The period of puppies in the Caspian seal is shorter than in other species - from the middle of the last decade of January to the end of the first decade of February. The majority of females bring offspring during this period. Mating begins after the puppy and lasts from mid-February to early March. Reproduction and mating take place on the ice of the Northern Caspian.

The female brings, as a rule, one large cub up to 75 cm long, weighing 3-4 kg. It is covered with long silky almost white hair. The duration of milk feeding is about 1 month, and during this period the length of the cub increases to 85-90 cm, and body weight - more than 4 times.

During the second and third decades of February, even during the lactation period, the cubs molt, replacing the children's white hairline. Shedding cubs are called sheepskin coats, and young animals that have completely replaced children's hair are called sivaris. The short hairline of the sivar has an almost monochromatic dark gray color on the back and a light gray (whitish) monochromatic color on the belly. As the animal grows, with each annual molt, the spotting of color appears brighter and brighter.

Females reach sexual maturity, apparently, at the age of 5, so that most of the females bear the first offspring at the age of 6 years. After that, most sexually mature females breed annually.

The seals do not form large and dense accumulations on the ice. Females with cubs are usually located at some distance from one another. Preferably, they cub on strong ice floes, in which they make holes (holes) even at a time when the ice is thin. These holes do not freeze due to the constant use of their animals to go out onto the ice. Sometimes seals are forced to widen their eyes with the help of sharp claws on their front flippers.

During the molting after the breeding and mating period, when the ice area is reduced, the Caspian seals form relatively dense aggregations. Animals that did not have time to molt on the ice sometimes (in April) lie down in groups on shalygs (sand islands) in the northern part of the Caspian.

In the summer months, Caspian seals stay in open water separately in a large area of ​​​​the Middle and South Caspian, and in autumn (September-October) they gather in the northeastern part of the sea, where they lie in dense groups (males and females of different ages) on shalygas.

The Baikal seal is one of three species of freshwater seals that live on our planet. This animal is endemic and the only mammal living in the waters of Lake Baikal, located in the south of Eastern Siberia. It is considered one of the most interesting objects of the so-called ecological tourism, which is rapidly gaining popularity. Read more about the lifestyle and habitat of the Baikal seal later in this article.

Short description

Adult animals can reach a length of 165 cm, and their weight varies between 50-120 kg. The growth of seals stops only at the nineteenth year of life, however, at the same time, body weight can periodically gain or decrease. The Baikal seal lives on average 55-60 years.

Under water, the animal usually swims at a speed of no more than 8 km / h, but during hunting or in case of a threat, it can increase significantly. Getting ashore, the seal slowly moves with the help of flippers and tail, however, sensing danger, it gallops rather dashingly, pushing them off the ground.

Baikal seals do not need to dive too deep. The fact is that they feed on such non-commercial fish as golomyanka, omul and goby, which are found in the illuminated areas of the lake. But, despite this, they are able to dive to a depth of 200-300 m and withstand a pressure of 21 atmospheres. The seal can be under water for more than one hour. This time is quite enough to find food or escape from persecution.

The first mention of the animal

It belongs to the beginning of the 17th century. At that time, the second Kamchatka, or, as it was also called, the Great Northern Expedition, organized by Vitus Bering himself, passed here. It also included a group of researchers headed by I. G. Gmelin. It was she who was engaged in a more in-depth study of the nature of Lake Baikal and its environs. It was then that a seal was first seen, which was later called a seal.

Then the locals claimed that the same animal was found not only in the waters of Lake Baikal, but also in the Baunt lakes. It is assumed that the seal could get there in two ways - through the Lena or Vitim rivers. Some researchers are inclined to the version that the seal could have penetrated there directly through Baikal, since it had previously communicated with these lakes. However, none of the above assumptions has yet been able to find reliable confirmation.

Favorite habitats

The Baikal seal can be found throughout the reservoir, but the largest concentration of these animals is most often observed in the middle and northern parts of the lake. However, their most favorite habitat is the Ushkany Islands, which are part of the National Park called Zabaikalsky.

If there is no ice on the lake, the seals prefer to rest, lying on the rocks protruding from the water and basking in the sun, alternately exposing one side or the other to its warm rays. The largest number of these animals can be observed in June, when they come to the surface for a long time and are located along the rocky shores of the Ushkany Islands.

Where does the Baikal seal winter?

In the cold season, animals live on the ice in special lairs located under the snow. Often they are found in hummocky areas of the lake. When Baikal begins to freeze, the animals make the main ice on the ice, the average diameter of which is about 150 cm. It is interesting that the seals can keep it in this state for a long time, from time to time removing the ice that forms on it.

With the onset of severe frosts, when the lake freezes, these animals, being under a layer of snow, breathe only through secondary vents. To do this, they rake the ice with the help of their forelimbs, which end in strong claws. Thus, a seal's lair can have up to a dozen such vents located along its perimeter. The diameter of the secondary vents is no more than 15 cm. Such a hole is quite enough for the animal to stick its nose in there.

reproduction

Puberty in these animals occurs already in the fourth year of life in females and in the sixth in males. The period of bearing cubs of Baikal seals lasts 11 months. After the female is 40 years old, she is no longer able to give birth. In her entire life, she can give birth to 20, and under favorable conditions, more cubs.

Before giving birth, the female prepares a reliable snow shelter. Usually one or two cubs are born. The weight of newborns is no more than 4 kg. Seals have soft white fur, which is why they are often called pups.

Caring for offspring

The snow lair is quite warm: at an external temperature of -20 ⁰C inside the “room”, it is +5 ⁰C. Baby seals stay in the shelter for five weeks. During this time, they eat only mother's milk and do not leave it for a minute. Before the lair begins to collapse, the squirrel manages to molt. The female leaves her cub only to hunt.

The lactation period for seals is about 60-75 days. It can last much longer, as it directly depends on the presence of ice cover. Before the babies begin to hunt on their own, they completely molt. At the same time, their fur turns from white to gray-silver. Color change occurs gradually and lasts about three months. In adult seals, the fur has a brownish-brown color.

The Baikal seal, starting from birth, knows how to build vents. This fact was confirmed by a specially conducted experiment. To do this, a small sheet of foam plastic 5 cm thick was placed directly on the water in the aquarium, while the rest of the space was left free. Several small seals, whose age did not exceed two months, began to make blowholes in the floating platform - special holes through which they breathed, sticking their nose in there. Surprisingly, the cubs did this, despite the fact that there was open water next to them. However, they, as if not noticing this, swam up from below, inhaled the air and again descended to the depth.

To conduct this experiment, several Baikal seal cubs were caught, which were no more than two weeks old. At this age, they still feed on their mother's milk, which means that the animals have never been immersed in water in their lives. When they grew up a little, during the first voyage, the seals demonstrated that the ability to make vents in the ice is their innate ability.

Another interesting fact is that this animal is able to sleep for quite a long time right in the water, while practically not moving. Sleep can continue until the oxygen in the blood runs out. It is so strong that scuba divers can swim close to the Baikal seal and even turn it over, and the animal continues to sleep peacefully. Such fearlessness of seals is due to the fact that they have no natural enemies in this ecological environment. For them, only human activity poses a real threat.

Animal fishing

The Baikal seal, whose photo is located in this article, is an object of hunting. Its meat, fat and fur are especially valued, from which hats are sewn. In addition, hunters often use the skin to pad their skis. Seal meat can be eaten. They also eat boiled flippers, which are considered a delicacy. The most tender and tasty is the meat of young individuals.

In ancient times, seal fat was used in soap making and leather production. In 1895-1897, animal fat was used in large quantities to illuminate the mines that are part of the Lena gold mines. As for the locals, they were sure that seal fat was healing, so they used it for stomach ulcers, as well as for various lung diseases.

The hunting season for the Baikal seal begins in April and lasts as long as it is possible to move around the frozen lake. In addition, the animal can be caught with the help of nets. This method is more rational, since there are no losses that occur during shooting. The fact is that wounded animals often go under the ice. Where they die. Nowadays, seal hunting is not prohibited. Every year, at least 5-6 thousand seals are caught or shot.

Cause of mass death

It first happened in 1987. Recently, some scientists have been carefully studying the causes of the mass death of animals. Their diagnostics showed that the seals died due to the carnivore distemper virus. Interestingly, this disease affects both domestic and wild animals.

There is documented evidence that about one and a half thousand individuals died from distemper in 1987 and 1988. At the same time, fishing during the 80s of the last century amounted to at least 5 thousand heads. Fortunately, the Baikal seal was not included in the Red Book, as it was noticed that the population of the animal exceeded the optimal number. In addition, such shooting, according to scientists, is even useful, as it helps to reduce intraspecific competition and allows animals to gain weight faster.

Scientists claim that the seal lived on the territory of Baikal already in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era, that is, about 1.6 million years ago, and its ancestors lived in the northern seas of the Arctic Ocean shortly before that. Another version says that the seal got to Baikal along the Lena River, which is believed to have had a runoff from Baikal.

The ancestors of the modern seal found suitable conditions in Baikal for themselves and quickly adapted to the features of the ancient reservoir, and then stayed there to live. The first mention of the Baikal seal is in the reports of pioneers who came to Baikal in the 17th century. The scientific description of the seal was first made during the Great Northern Expedition, which was organized by the "Russian Columbus", the traveler Vitus Bering.

Fact 2: The seal saves the omul

The seal closes the Baikal food chain, and its only enemy, oddly enough, is man. Despite their clumsy appearance, the seal can reach speeds of up to 25 km per hour in water and has still retained the ability to swim into rivers and travel hundreds of kilometers.

The Baikal seal is not only an outstanding swimmer, but also a well-equipped underwater hunter. Large eyes provide her with a catch even in low light conditions. Diving to a depth of up to 300 meters, the seal can withstand a pressure of 31 atm. The seal feeds mainly on golomyanka-goby fish, and in such quantities that it can eat more than a ton in a year.

Thanks to its hunting, this nimble animal has a huge impact not only on the ichthyofauna of the lake, but also on its entire ecosystem. For example, eating at least 50 thousand tons of small and large golomyankas per year, the seal thereby saves thousands of tons of important inhabitants of Baikal from extinction - macrohectopus, epishura and other crustaceans that would have been eaten by golomyankas. In turn, these crustaceans are the main food not only for golomyankas, but also for the beloved omul and other species of commercial fish. Thus, the seal provides food for the Baikal fish and saves them from extinction.

Fact 3: Nerpa is a talented builder

The seals wait out the winter under the ice, scratching special vents for breathing in its thickness. Each animal maintains several of these open vents. In hummocks, female seals build real snow houses for themselves, where pups are born in February-March: this is how young seals are called because of their white and yellow color.

The color serves as their main protection against predators (crows, foxes or wolves prey on weak cubs) and makes the babies invisible on the snow-white Baikal ice. Inside such shelters, which mothers equip for their children, a special microclimate is formed, in which even in 20-degree Siberian frosts the temperature can reach 5 degrees Celsius. Here, the babies spend the first 4-5 weeks of their lives, and the mother leaves them only for the duration of the hunt. The cubs feed on their mother's fat milk (the fat content of milk is 50-60%) and have time to grow from 3-5 kg ​​(at birth) to 20-30 kg. At the same time, the total weight of his body increases by 7-9 times, and the mass of subcutaneous fat - by 22 times. The fat of mother's milk is deposited in the cub under the skin, forming a kind of fat "bag" on the body. This "bag" plays the same role as a sleeping bag for a person.

Fact 4: Seals have their own "sanatoriums"

However, everyone who is seriously interested in Baikal knows that the Baikal seal has a favorite place where you can see hundreds or even thousands of individuals. This place is the small Ushkany Islands. Such coastal rookeries become a kind of sanatoriums or "rest houses": animals often accumulate there, which need rest and recovery. The reason may be wounds that have not healed after the winter, molting not completed in time, or other health problems that the seal swims to heal in the Baikal sun.

Fact 5: The seal has its own alarm clock

In fact, seals cannot breathe underwater. Under experimental conditions, in a large aquarium, the seal can be under water for up to 68 minutes. In nature, the Baikal seal is under water for up to 20-25 minutes - this is enough for him to get food or escape from danger.

But at the same time, the seal can sleep in the water, and its sleep lasts as long as there is a supply of oxygen in the lungs. The question is, how can she sleep in the water, if in the active state she can be under water for no more than 25 minutes? The fact is that when the seal sleeps, it consumes much less oxygen, as it is in an immobilized state. If you swim up to a sleeping seal, it will not wake up, even if you touch it or turn it over in the water. So only a lack of oxygen can wake up a seal. Here is such a reliable alarm clock!

Baikal is the deepest and uniquely beautiful lake in the world. It is there that you can meet unique animals that are not found anywhere else - Baikal, endemics, relics of the tertiary fauna.

Baikal seal belongs to the seal family and forms a separate species. This is the only mammal on Baikal. This wonderful animal was first heard and described during the Bering expedition.

The team included various scientists, including those who were directly involved in the study of the nature of the Baikal region. It was from them that the first detailed seal descriptions.

The pinniped animal on Baikal is a rather unique phenomenon. After all, it is customary to think that seals are the indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic and Antarctic. How it happened that these animals ended up in Eastern Siberia is still a mystery to everyone.

In the photo, the Baikal seal

But the fact remains, and this phenomenon makes Lake Baikal even more mysterious and unusual. On the photo of Baikal seal you can watch endlessly. Her impressive size and some kind of childish expression of the muzzle seem slightly incompatible.

Features and habitat of the Baikal seal

This is a rather large animal, almost with a human height of 1.65 cm, and weighing from 50 to 130 kg. The animal is everywhere covered with thick and hard hair. It is not only on the eyes and nostrils. It is even on the flippers of the animal. seal fur mostly gray or gray-brown in color with a beautiful silvery sheen. Most often, the lower part of her torso is lighter than the upper.

seal animal swims without problems thanks to webbed fingers. Strong claws are clearly visible on the front paws. On the hind legs they are slightly smaller. The neck of the seal is practically absent.

Females are always slightly larger than males. The seal has a third eyelid in front of its eyes. After a long stay in the air, her eyes begin to water involuntarily. There is simply a huge amount of fat deposits in the body of an animal.

The fat layer of the seal is about 10-15 cm. The least fat is located in the area of ​​​​the head and front paws. Fat helps the animal not to freeze in cold water. Also, with the help of this fat, it is easy for seals to survive difficult periods of lack of food. Subcutaneous Baikal seal fat helps her to lie on the surface of the water for a long time.

The Baikal seal has a very deep sleep

In this position, she can even sleep. Their sleep is very strong. There were cases when scuba divers turned these sleeping animals over, and they did not even wake up at the same time. Baikal seal seal lives exclusively on Lake Baikal.

True, there are exceptions and seals end up in the Angara. In the winter season, they spend almost all their time in the underwater kingdom of the lake and only in rare cases can appear on its surface.

In order to have enough oxygen under water, seals make small holes on the ice with their sharp claws. The usual dimensions of such holes are from 40 to 50 cm. The deeper the funnel, the wider it is.

Baikal seal underwater

The end of the winter period for this pinnipeds animal is characterized by access to the ice. In the first summer month there is a huge accumulation of these animals in the area of ​​the coast of the Ushkany Islands.

It is there that the real seal rookery is located. As soon as the sun sets in the sky, these animals begin to move together towards the islands. After the ice floes disappear from the lake, seals try to stay closer to the coastal zone.

The nature and lifestyle of the Baikal seal

An interesting thing about the seal is that while it is under water, its nostrils and holes in the ears are closed with a special valve. When the animal emerges and exhales air, pressure occurs and the valves open.

The animal has excellent hearing, perfect vision and an excellent sense of smell. The speed of movement of the seal in the water reaches approximately 25 km / h. After the ice breaks on Baikal, and this falls on the months of March-May, the seal begins to molt. At this time, the animal is starving and does not need water. The seal does not eat anything at this time, it has enough fat reserves for life.

This is a very energetic, curious, but at the same time cautious animal. It can watch a person from the water for a long time, plunging into it completely and leaving only his head on the surface. As soon as the seal realizes that it has been seen from its observation post, it immediately, without the slightest splashes and unnecessary noises, quietly plunges under the water.

This animal is easy to train. They become literally the favorites of the public. There is not one show of Baikal seals, which is enjoyed by both adults and children.

Baikal seals participants of the show

The Baikal seal has no enemies other than humans. In the last century, people were engaged in the extraction of seals very intensively. It was on a colossal industrial scale. Literally everything that this animal consists of has been used. The fat of the seal was filled with special lamps in the mines, the meat was eaten, and the taiga hunters especially valued the skin.

It was used to make high-quality and high-speed skis. Such skis differed from ordinary ones in that they could never go back on any steep slope. It got to the point that the animal became smaller and smaller. Therefore, in 1980, a unanimous decision was made to save him, and Baikal seal was listed in Red book.

In the photo, a cub of the Baikal seal

Nutrition of the Baikal seal

The favorite food of seals are golovyankas and Baikal gobies. In a year, this animal can eat more than a ton of such food. Rarely, omul can be found in their diet. This fish makes up 1-2% of the animal's daily food. There are groundless rumors that seals are destroying entire populations of the Baikal omul. Actually it is not. He comes across from the seal in food, but extremely rarely.

Reproduction and life expectancy of the Baikal seal

The end of the winter period in the Baikal seal is associated with the childbearing process. Their puberty occurs at the age of four. The female's pregnancy lasts 11 months. She crawls out onto the ice in order to give birth to babies. It is during this period that the seal is most threatened by the danger from hunters and poachers.

Baikal seal cubs are born white, which is why they are often called "whites"

In order to somehow protect themselves from these potential enemies and from severe spring weather conditions, seals build special dens. This dwelling is connected to water so that the female can protect herself at any moment and protect her offspring from possible danger.

Somewhere in the middle of March, a baby of the Baikal seal is born. Most often, the female has one, rarely two and even less often three. The weight of a small one is about 4 kg. Approximately 3-4 months the baby eats mother's milk.

He is dressed in a beautiful snow-white fur coat, thanks to which they are perfectly disguised in snowdrifts. Some time passes and after molting, the babies acquire their natural gray shade of fur with silver, characteristic of their species. Fathers in their upbringing do not take any part.

The growth of seals takes a very long time. They grow up to 20 years. It happens that some individuals, not growing to their normal size, die. After all, the average life expectancy of the Baikal seal is about 8-9 years.

Although scientists have noticed that this animal can live for a long time - up to 60 years. But for many reasons and due to some external factors, there are very few such centenarians among seals, one can say a few. More than half of all these animals are seals of the younger generation at the age of 5 years. The age of seals can be easily determined by their fangs and claws.

Seals are animals similar to seals, with a spindle-shaped body, a small head and with limbs that have evolved into flippers in the process of evolution, thanks to which seals are excellent swimmers and divers. All seals, especially freshwater ones, are living relics that have been preserved on Earth since the end of the Tertiary period.

Description of the seal

Nerpa belongs to the family of real seals. Depending on the species, it can live in both salt and fresh water of the arctic, subarctic or temperate zones. Currently, three types of seals are known: two of them are marine, and one is freshwater.

Appearance

The body of the seal is shaped like a spindle, which allows the animal to easily glide through the water. Depending on the species, the size of the seal can reach 170 cm, and it weighs from 50 to 130 kg. The neck of the seal is weakly expressed, sometimes it may even seem that it does not exist at all, and the body simply passes into a small, head with a flattened skull, smoothly turning into a slightly elongated muzzle. In general, the seal's head is a bit similar in shape to a cat's, except for the fact that its muzzle is more elongated. The seals have no ears, they are replaced by auditory canals, which are invisible from the outside.

The eyes of this animal are large, dark and very expressive. The eyes of seal cubs seem especially large: huge and dark, they seem even more contrasting against the background of light wool and give the little seal a resemblance either to an owlet or some kind of alien creature. Thanks to the third eyelid that seals have, they can swim and dive without fear of damaging their eyes. However, in the open air, the seal's eyes tend to water, which gives the impression that the animal is crying.

The body of the seal has a large fat layer that helps this animal survive in the harsh conditions of a cold climate and not freeze in icy water. The same reserves of fat can help the seal survive a temporary hunger strike during a period of starvation, and thanks to them, the animal can lie for hours and even sleep on the surface of the water. The skin of the seal is very strong and strong. It is covered with short, dense and harsh hair, which also protects the animal from hypothermia both in cold water and on ice or on the shore.

Between the fingers of these animals there are membranes, and on the front flippers, in addition, there are also powerful claws, thanks to which the seal makes holes in the ice in order to get out onto land or in order to rise to the surface of the water for a breath of fresh air. The coat color of the seal, depending on the species, can be dark silver or brownish, while it is often covered with darker spots.

This is interesting! One of the species of these animals - the ringed seal, was named so because of its unusual color, in which the light rings on its skin have a dark border.

Behavior, lifestyle

The seal spends most of its life in the water. This animal is considered an unsurpassed swimmer: thanks to its spindle-shaped body and small streamlined head, it dives superbly and can spend up to 70 minutes under water, depending on the species. While diving, the animal's ear canals and nostrils are closed, so that under water it can breathe only thanks to the large volume of its lungs and the supply of air that fits in them.

Often these animals even sleep on the surface of the water, and their sleep is surprisingly strong: it happened that people, having swum up to the sleeping seals, turned them over on purpose, and they did not even think of waking up. The seal spends the winter under water, only occasionally rising to the surface of the water in order to take a new breath of fresh air. On ice or on land, these animals begin to get out closer to the beginning of spring, when the breeding season begins.

Moreover, as a rule, seals have favorite places for rookeries, where they gather in order to continue their race. These animals see and hear perfectly, and they also have an excellent sense of smell. They are quite cautious when they are awake, so approaching a seal at this time is not an easy task. Noticing the approach of a stranger, the seal immediately, without the slightest splash, goes into the water, from where it can watch the alleged enemy with curiosity for a long time.

Seals only on the ground can seem clumsy and clumsy creatures. In water, they are active, energetic and almost tireless. Under water, the speed of movement of the seal can be 25 km / h, although in a calm environment these animals swim much more slowly. On the shore, seals move with the help of their front flippers and tail, sorting through them. In the event of danger, they begin to jump, while loudly slapping on the ice or ground with their front flippers and pushing off a hard surface with their tail.

Sea seals of cold latitudes, unlike freshwater ones, regardless of the time of year, prefer to spend most of their time on the ice or on the shore, and not in the water, where they dive only in case of danger or in order to get food.

This is interesting! All seals are animals leading a mostly solitary lifestyle. Only during the breeding season do they gather in flocks. But even so, each seal tries to keep apart and drives away its relatives with an indignant snort.

How long does a seal live

Under favorable conditions, seals can live up to 60 years.. In the natural habitat, this animal lives a little: its average life span is 8-9 years. Almost half of the seal population is made up of individuals whose average age is 5 years or less. Given that the growth of seals continues up to 20 years, it can be argued that many animals die for a variety of reasons without even having time to grow to medium size.

sexual dimorphism

Outwardly, it is expressed in the fact that individuals of different sexes differ from each other in size. Moreover, if the females of the Baikal seal are larger than the males, then the Caspian seal, on the contrary, the males are larger.

Types of seals

There are three types of seals:

• ringed, which inhabits the temperate waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the Arctic Ocean, and in Russia is found in all northern seas, as well as in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.
• Caspian, which is endemic to the Caspian Sea.
• Baikal, not found anywhere else in the world, except for Lake Baikal.

All three species differ from each other in color and, in part, in size: the Caspian seal is the smallest of them, its dimensions are about 1.3 meters in length and weighs about 86 kg.

This is interesting! Some scientists suggest that all types of seals are related to each other by a common origin, moreover, the ancestor of the Caspian and Baikal species is called the ringed seal, which migrated to Baikal and the Caspian about two million years ago and evolved into two new species there.

However, there is another version, according to which the ringed and Baikal seals simply had a common ancestor, which appeared later than even the Caspian seal.

Range, habitats

Four subspecies of this seal live mainly in the polar or subpolar regions.

• Belomorskaya The ringed seal lives in the Arctic and is the most common seal in the Arctic Ocean.
• Baltic the seal lives in the cold waters of the northern regions of the Baltic, in particular, it can be seen off the coast of Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Russia. Sometimes this animal even swims to the coast of Germany.
• Two other subspecies of ringed seal - Ladoga And Saimaa, are freshwater and live in Lake Ladoga and Lake Saimaa.

Found along the coastline and on the rocky islands of the Caspian Sea, in winter it can also often be seen on drifting ice floes. In the warm season, it can even swim into the mouths of the Volga and the Urals.

Prefers to settle in the northern and middle parts of Lake Baikal. The Ushkany Islands are used as a favorite rookery, where in June a large concentration of seals can be observed.

Seals, depending on their species, live either in fresh or salt water of lakes and seas, preferring those that are in cold latitudes. In the winter season, the animals spend more time in the water, and with the onset of spring they move closer to the coast or even come out onto land, as the Baltic and Caspian seals do.

Seal diet

Depending on the species and habitats, these animals can feed on various fish or invertebrates:

• ringed seals feed on crustaceans - mysids and shrimps, as well as fish: polar cod, herring, smelt, whitefish, perch, gobies.
• Caspian seals eat fish and crustaceans living in the Caspian Sea. They are especially willing to eat small herring and sprat - these are the types of fish that make up the bulk of their diet. The proportion of crustaceans is small - it is approximately 1% of the total amount of food.
• Baikal seals feed on non-commercial medium-sized fish: mainly golomyanka or gobies.

This is interesting! It used to be that the Baikal seals cause great damage to the whitefish population, but, as it turned out later, they come across them only by chance and the total number of sturgeons in the seal's diet is no more than 1-2%.

Reproduction and offspring

Depending on the species and gender, seals reach sexual maturity at 3-7 years of age, and males mature later than females. These animals bring cubs either annually or 2-3 years after the previous birth. It happens that a certain percentage of females after mating do not bring offspring. As a rule, 10-20% of the Baikal seals have such "vacations" every year.

The reasons for this still remain unclear: either this is due to the natural regulation of the number of livestock, or simply not all females that temporarily suspended the development of embryos resume it after a while. It is also not excluded that this phenomenon may be associated with some diseases transferred by the female or unfavorable living conditions.

Seals usually mate in the spring, and then the gestation period continues for 9-11 months. Females give birth on ice, at this time they and their newborn cubs are very vulnerable to predators and hunters. Most often, seals give birth to one, but sometimes two or even three cubs, and the color of the babies differs from the color of adults: for example, the cubs of the Baikal seal are born white, hence their name - pups.

At first, the mother feeds the baby with milk, after which the cub is gradually transferred to an adult diet consisting of fish and invertebrates. By the time this happens, he manages to completely shed and change the color of the fur to the one that is inherent in adults. Even before giving birth, Baikal seals build special dens from snow, where they feed their cubs exclusively with milk for a month or a half. Depending on weather and temperature conditions, lactation can last from 2 to 3.5 months.

This is interesting! The seal is the only animal that can deliberately suspend and resume the intrauterine development of its future cubs. Most often this happens during long and very cold winters, when babies born at term simply cannot survive.

Males do not take any part in raising offspring, while females continue to take care of the babies until they learn to live on their own. After the cubs are separated from their mother, the female seal can mate again, but sometimes the breeding season for her comes earlier: when the previous cub is still feeding on milk.