Seal Harbour 30cm - Soft Toy

Physical Characteristics
Common seals are generally brown, tan, or grey coloured. Each seal possesses a unique pattern of fine, dark spots (or light spots on a dark background in some variants), they vary in colour from brownish black to tan or grey with a lighter belly. The body and flippers are short, with a proportionately large, rounded head. The nostrils appear distinctively V-shaped; as with other true seals, there is no ear flap. Including the head and flippers, they may reach an adult length of 1.85 m (6.1 ft) and a weight of 55 to 168 kg (120 to 370 lbs). Females are generally smaller than males but outlive them by 10 years on average.

Habitat
They are found in coastal waters of the northern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as those of the Baltic and North Seas, making them the most wide-ranging of the pinnipeds (walruses, eared seals, and true seals).

Behaviour
While not forming groups as large as some other seals, Common Seals are gregarious animals. When not actively feeding, the seals will haul themselves out of the water and onto a preferred resting site. The seals tend to hug the coast, not venturing more than 20 kilometres offshore unless on feeding forays.

Breeding
Both courtship and mating occurs underwater. The mating system is not known, but thought to be polygamous. Females are thought to give birth once per year, with a gestation period of eleven months. Birthing of pups occurs annually on shore, beginning in February for populations in lower latitudes, and as late as July in the subarctic zone. The pups are born singly and well developed, capable of swimming and diving within hours. Suckling for three to six weeks, pups feed on the mother's rich, fatty milk and grow rapidly; born weighing up to 16 kilograms, the pups may double their weight by the time of weaning.

Diet
Common Seal may travel up to 50 kilometres in search of feeding grounds are known to prey primarily upon fish such as menhaden, anchovy, sea bass, herring, cod, whiting and flatfish, and occasionally upon shrimp, mollusks and squid. They are able to dive for up to ten minutes, reaching depths of 457m or more, but average dives may be three minutes long at depths of about 20m. There are a few cases of harbour seals attacking, killing and eating several kinds of seabirds.

Strange and Interesting Facts
In 1988 phocine distemper virus killed about 33 per cent of all common seals in the North Sea.