About Ringed Seals

Physical Description

• Adult ringed seals have ring-shaped marks on their coats.
• The Ringed Seal has 5 subspecies: Arctic, Baltic, Lagoda, Okhotsk, and Saimaa ringed seals.
• Each subspecies varies in size and weight.
• The subspecies' sizes are between 1-1.5 m. and their weight is between 32-120 kg.
• Arctic ringed seals are 1-1.5 m in length and weight 50-70kg

Taxonomy

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Carnivora
• Family: Phocidae
• Genus: Phoca
• Species: Hispida

Distribution and Habitat

Arctic ringed seals, P. h. hispida, are most abundant in Arctic Ocean seas. They are found in the Northern Hemisphere (from 35°N to the North Pole). They live on ice floes and pack ice. Ringed seals are the only seals that dig and maintain breathing holes in thick sea ice using their claws, and this is the main reason why they are most abundant around arctic and sub-arctic areas.

Diet

Ringed seals feed on saffron cod, shrimp and amphipods between late summer and early spring. In the fall, they feed on saffron cod, and in the winter, they eat Arctic cod.

Life Span

Average life span of Ringed Seals is 15 to 20 years. However, they can delay maturity, which lowers the reproduction rates and heightens their survival. However, low reproduction rates increase their recovery time from a population decrease.

Reproduction and Behavior

The female ringed seal reaches sexual maturity at the age 6 and male reaches it at age 7. They mate in late April and early May, but the embryo doesn’t implant in the womb until August or September. The gestation period is approximately 240 days. The ringed seals are born on ice. When they are first born, they are at a high risk of predation. Because of predatory risk, baby seals learn to dive and be in water at an early age.

Status

NOAA’s Fisheries Service proposed to list four subspecies of Ringed Seals as threatened. These are Arctic, Okhotsk, Baltic and Ladoga. And one subspecies of Ringed Seals, which is Saimaa as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

They are vulnerable to climate change because they are dependent on ice. They use ice to give birth, nurse pups, molt of their fur, and make caves for protection from predators like polar bears.