Ringed Seal
Pusa hispida · Mammal
The smallest and commonest seal of the Arctic, dark with silver rings, found all round the Arctic Ocean and into the Bering, Okhotsk and Baltic seas, with two freshwater races in lakes Saimaa and Ladoga. It keeps to the ice nearly all year, holding breathing holes open through ice up to 1.8 m thick with the strong claws of its fore flippers, and pups in lairs within the ice in late winter. It is the polar bear's chief prey, and the peoples of the Arctic have hunted it for some 4,000 years.
- Danger
- Harmless
- How it is met
- Alone, day and night
- Size
- Medium
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Gives
Ringed Seal Meat, Ringed Seal Oil, Ringed Seal Skin
Sources
- Rebekah Spicer, Pusa hispida (ringed seal). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, 2013.
- Ringed seal. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2026.
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