The seal is a sea urchin. Vertebrates of Baikal

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 salty and fresh water 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, as in cold water, and on the 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.

It 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 kind. 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 season, 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.

It 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 according to the most different reasons not 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.

It 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 located in cold latitudes. AT winter time During the year, the animals spend more time in the water, and with the onset of spring they move closer to the coast or even come out on 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.

It 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 total sturgeon fish in the diet of the seal 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.

It 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 weaned, the female seal can mate again, but sometimes the breeding season for her comes earlier: when the previous cub is still feeding on milk.

Baikal seal, or Baikal seal(lat. Pusa sibirica GmeL) - the only mammal, which lives in . According to the classification, the Baikal seal belongs to the family of true seals (Phocidae), the genus Pusa. Researchers believe that the Baikal seal came from a common ancestor with the northern ringed seal. At the same time, the parental forms of these two species are later than the Caspian seal.

taxon rank. The Baikal seal (Phoca sibirica) belongs to the genus Common (true) seals (Phoca) of the Seal family (Phocidae) of the order Pinnipedia (Pinnipedia) of the Mammalia class.

General appearance and morphophysiological characteristics. Large aquatic mammal. The body length of sexually mature animals is 120–140 cm, and their weight can reach 80–90 kg. A newborn seal has a mass of about 3.0 kg. The color of the hairline is one-color, without spots. The back is usually one-color, olive-gray or brownish-silver-gray, the sides and belly are lighter and yellower. Kumutkans (for the first time molted individuals from 1 month to 1 year) are silver-gray. Belki (animals under the age of 1 month) are yellowish-white. Frequent planting of teeth with an increased number of accessory vertices is associated with the consumption of small fish. Enlarged eyeballs are an adaptation for feeding in low light conditions and at dusk. The powerful claw apparatus of the front flippers is designed to make and maintain vents for breathing in solid ice. Elevated blood hemoglobin concentrations are associated with deep-sea diving in search of food on long time with off breathing. The maximum diving depth is 300 m. Max speed movement in water - 20–25 km / h. The maximum duration of stay under water is 65 minutes.

Distribution and migrations. Habitat - the entire water area of ​​Lake Baikal. In summer - in the Middle and water areas adjacent to the eastern coast of the Northern

The seal is the final link in the trophic chain of Baikal, since it uses the products of the upper links of the chain (phyto-, zooplankton, bacterioplankton and fish) and thereby experiences the manifestations of all the changes taking place in the Baikal ecosystem.

In the process of evolution, the Baikal seal has acquired a number of ecological, physiological and structural-morphological adaptations that distinguish it from closely related species. The seal is an almost pelagic animal that has practically lost contact with the land (however, the seal retained the need for a solid substrate (ice) for the breeding season). AT summer time animals gather on coastal rookeries at a distance from human settlements. The well-being of the Baikal seal population is largely due to the formation of a reproductive strategy (lair arrangement, lactation energy features, rapid maturation, development of “diving” abilities of puppies, etc.), which ensures high survival of offspring in cold and deep water conditions.

Currently, the seal population is in a state of dynamic equilibrium with the main food objects, and the ichthyoproduction of the pelagic zone of the lake. Baikal can provide a population of about 100 thousand individuals. The Baikal seal is characterized by high plasticity and resistance to biotic and abiotic factors. It is noted that the seal is a plastic animal that adapts to changes in the ice regime, the abundance of food supply and relatively safely endures epizootics. According to E. A. Petrov, at the end of the twentieth century, the number of female seals was 47,600 specimens, males - 28,200 specimens. In 2002, the number of the entire population with offspring was 99 thousand individuals. AT modern conditions for rational use Human resources of the population of the Baikal seal require constant monitoring of the state of the number and health of the Baikal seal. This will help preserve the seal and thus contribute to the ecological balance of the unique ecosystem of Lake Baikal.

Source: Baikal studies: textbook. allowance / N. S. Berkin, A. A. Makarov, O. T. Rusinek. - Irkutsk: Publishing house Irk. state un-ta, 2009. S. 202-204.

EA Petrov 2 analyzed the literature data on the origin of the Baikal seal Phoca sibirica. According to the prevailing ideas, the Baikal seal belongs to an ancient isolate formed in the Pliocene in the northern or Far Eastern seas, or in the system of freshwater lakes in North Asia. The divergence time of the Baikal seal from the common stem of Phoca is 18.4 Ma 3 . Analysis of the amino acid composition of myoglobin by molecular diagnostic methods showed a close relationship between the seal, spotted seal (Phoca vitulina), and gray seal (Halechoerus gryphus), and it was calculated that these species separated from a common ancestor in the last 7 million years 4 . Based on geological data, researchers suggest that the most probable time for the seals to enter Baikal is the Pleistocene (i.e., the last 2 million years). Due to cold weather, seals were forced out from the north to the Great Siberian Lakes and then settled in Baikal, the Caspian Sea, lakes and rivers Western Europe. Later, seals entered the Baltic and North Seas. The specified time of separation from the common ancestor of the branch of the spotted seal and the ringed seal from the Baikal seal was 1.7–1 million years 5 .

According to E. A. Petrov, the morphometric parameters of the skull of the Baikal seal are closer to the ringed one than to the Caspian one. These data are in good agreement with the results of Japanese biologists who studied the mitochondrial DNA of these seals. It was shown that the Caspian seal separated from the common ancestral trunk about 640 thousand years ago, while the separation of the ringed and Baikal seals occurred 380 thousand years ago 6 .

Based on various data, it can be assumed that the seal entered Baikal from the northern seas about 2 million years ago, and possibly even later. And the insignificant variability of the mitochondrial DNA genome of the Baikal seal, apparently, indicates a slight genetic heterogeneity of its population and origin from a small number of ancestors that penetrated Baikal 7 .

Source: Baikal studies: textbook. allowance / N. S. Berkin, A. A. Makarov, O. T. Rusinek. - Irkutsk: Publishing house Irk. state un-ta, 2009. S. 222-223.

Nerpa in questions and answers

605. Are there mammals in Baikal?

The only representative of mammals is a seal, or seal (Pusasibiricagmel.). According to the classification, the Baikal seal belongs to the family of true seals (Phocidae), genus Pusa. Researchers (in particular, K.K. Chapsky, a well-known specialist in pinnipeds in the USSR and abroad) believe that the Baikal seal descended from a common ancestor with the northern ringed seal. At the same time, the parental forms of these two species are later than Caspian seal.

606. Where did the seal come from in Baikal?

There is no direct evidence yet. Assume what it penetrated from the Arctic Ocean along the Yenisei and into ice Age when the rivers were dammed by ice advancing from the north. Other scientists do not rule out the possibility of its penetration along the Lena, which is supposed to have had a runoff from Baikal.

607. Who was the first to describe the seal (nerpa) of Baikal?

There is a mention of it in the reports of the first explorers who came here in the first half ofXVIIcentury. Scientific Description first made during the work of the 2nd Kamchatka, or the Great Northern Expedition, led by V. Bering. As part of this expedition, a detachment worked on Baikal under the leadership of I. G. Gmelin, who studied the nature of the lake and its environs in many ways and described the seal.

608. Did the seal live in the Baunt lakes?

According to legend local residents, seals quite recently (one or two centuries ago) met in the Baunt lakes (the Baunt lakes are connected with the Vitim river basin). It is believed that the seal got there bypp. Lena and Vitim. Some naturalists believe that the seal came to the Baunt Lakes from Baikal and that these lakes were allegedly connected with it.

However, reliable data confirming this or that version has not yet been received.

609. How many seals are there in Baikal?

According to the staff of the Limnological Institute of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, there are currently about 60 thousand heads. Counting is being done different ways. The fastest, but less reliable - visually from an aircraft that flies along a specific route grid. The census takers look out the window and mark each observed lair or take aerial photographs of the routes and count the lairs along them. And then they are already recalculated from a unit area to the entire water area of ​​the lake.

The second method is laying around Baikal about 100 accounting sites 1.5X1.5 km each. They go around on a motorcycle or go around on foot on the ice and count all the lairs that are found on the sites. Then a recalculation is also carried out for the entire water area of ​​the lake. And finally, the route method. On two or three motorcycles, a group of accountants makes routes across Lake Baikal at a certain distance from each other, sufficient to see from the motorcycle all the dens encountered. AT last years the most accurate (maximum statistical error ± 10%) areal registration of the seal is used.

610. What is the age limit for seals in Baikal?

The largest age of the seals in Baikal, determined by V. D. Pastukhov, an employee of the Limnological Institute, is 56 years for females and 52 years for males.

611. At what age does a seal become sexually mature?

At the age of 3-6 years, it is capable of mating, it brings offspring at the age of 4-7 years. Males reach sexual maturity a year or two later. A seal's pregnancy lasts 11 months. It begins with embryonic diapause - a delay in the development of the embryo in the womb of a female for 3-3.5 months.

612. How many babies do a seal give birth to in a lifetime?

During her life, the female can probably bring up to two dozen or more cubs, given that she is capable of bringing offspring up to the age of 40. Females usually mate annually. However, annually up to 10-20% of females remain barren for various reasons.

613. When does a seal give birth to cubs?

The period of puppies is extended for more than a month - from the end of February to the beginning of April. Most of the seals appear in mid-March. They are born on ice, in a snow lair. In the first period, while feeding on mother's milk, they do not dive into the water, but prefer to lie down in the den.

614. How do cubs differ from adults?

Usually a seal gives birth to one, rarely two cubs. Newborn weight up to 4 kg. The cubs have white fur - this is their protective coloration. She sheds in the first weeks of life, while they feed on their mother's milk, go almost unnoticed in the snow. With the transition to self-feeding with fish, seals molt: the fur gradually changes color to silver-gray in two to three months old, and then to brown-brown in older and adult individuals.

615. What is hubun (hubunok), kumatkan?

A young seal cub is called a hubunk (Buryat hubun - a baby of a wild animal). For the first time, a molted animal is called a kumatkan. St. John's slaughter goes mainly on kumatkans.

616. What size does a seal reach in Baikal?

Average weight seals in Baikal about 50 kg, Weight Limit males 130-150 kg, length 1.7-1.8 m. Females are smaller in size - 1.3-1.6 m and up to 110 kg. Linear growth in seals ends by the age of 17-19, and weight growth continues for a number of years and is possible until the end of life.

617. With what speed does a seal swim?

The maximum speed is 20-25 km/h. But that's how fast she swims when she's out of danger. In a calm environment, it swims much more slowly - probably 10-15 km / h.

618. To what depths can a seal dive?

According to the fishermen, the seal fell into the nets at a depth of up to 200 m, but, as a rule, it dives to much shallower depths. Since the seal catches food in a well-lit area (25-30 m), it apparently does not need to dive deep.

619. What pressure can a seal withstand when diving to a depth?

If the seal is able to dive up to 200 m, then, therefore, it can withstand a pressure of 21 atm.

620. Why does the seal not suffer from decompression sickness?

Probably, the main reason is that the seal does not breathe underwater, so the saturation of tissues, including blood, with gases remains the same as atmospheric pressure. There is no excessive saturation with nitrogen, although the seal can undergo a change in pressure from 1 to 10-15 atm in half an hour. and more.

Divers during a short stay under water also do not develop decompression sickness, although, as is known, the record dive without apparatus is 100 m or more. Probably, for the same reason, whales (sperm whales) do not suffer from caisson disease, which are able to dive to a depth of 1200 m, while maintaining a pressure of 121 atm.

621. Do seals sleep in water?

According to observations, the seal sleeps in the water, as it is immobilized for quite a long time, probably as long as there is enough oxygen in the blood. During the sleep of the seal, scuba divers swam close to it, touched it and even turned it over, but the animal continued to sleep.

622. How long can a seal stay under water?

Under experimental conditions (in a large aquarium), when it was held above water, the seal was there for up to 65 minutes (a record duration). In nature, she is under water for up to 20-25 minutes - this is enough for her to get food or escape from danger.

623. Where does the seal winter?

On ice in lairs under snow, often in hummocky areas of Lake Baikal.

624. What are puffs?

When the lake is ice-bound, the seal can breathe only through vents - vents - spare holes in the ice. The seal makes blows by raking the ice from below with the nails of the forelimbs. Around her lair there are up to a dozen or more auxiliary products that can be separated from the main one by tens or even hundreds. meters.

The airways are usually round in shape. The size of the auxiliary vents is 10-15 cm (sufficient to stick your nose above the surface of the water), and the main vent is up to 40-50 cm. From the bottom, the vents have the shape of an inverted funnel - they expand significantly downward. Interestingly, the ability to make produkh is an innate instinct. In the experimental aquarium for the rest of the seals on the water surface, a small platform of five-centimeter polystyrene was installed, and the rest of the aquarium with open water. Young seals of a month and two months old made holes in the foam, raking it with their claws from below, put their nose out and breathed into the air, although there was open water nearby. "Saturated" with air, they again went under the water. It should be noted that seals were caught at a week or two weeks of age, when they were still feeding on their mother's milk. I had to feed them with condensed milk through a nipple from a bottle, like children. They did not yet swim in the water and were afraid of the water. But when they grew up, they showed what they are capable of.

625. How does a seal get food in winter?

Dives into the main vent in the lair. In search of food, she can retire a considerable distance. If it lacks oxygen during foraging, it uses additional air outlets.

626. How much food does a seal need per day?

Under experimental conditions (in an aquarium), the daily diet of seals was from 3 to 5 kg of fish. For a year, an adult seal eats up to 1 ton of fish. The main food of the seal is golomyanka-goby fish. the seal is caught accidentally and in very small quantities, no more than 1-2% of the daily diet. Omul, like grayling and whitefish, is a very energetic and fast-moving fish, and the seal simply cannot catch up with it. And those individuals that come across are probably weakened, and their selection only improves the population, maintaining its "sports" form.

627. How and when are seals hunted?

Usually in the spring, when the snow begins to melt from the surface and the main vents are exposed, near which it warms itself or rests along with the newborn offspring. Hunting begins in April and continues during the spring ice drift, when you can sail on ships or boats among the ice floes, on which the haulouts are arranged. In addition to shooting recent times more and more net fishing is used. Special nets are installed under the ice near the main vents, and when the seal returns “home”, it gets into them. Catching with the help of nets is more rational, since there are almost no losses, which occur during shooting, when wounded animals go under the ice and die there.

628. How many seals produce per year?

During the previous decade, fishing artels annually harvested up to 2.5 thousand heads. Only in the last 3 years, the extraction of 5-6 thousand heads was allowed. This was done in order to determine the role of the seal population in the biological cycle of matter and energy in the Baikal ecosystem and to develop methods for managing it.

629. Is the seal edible?

Local residents of the shores of Lake Baikal consider the meat and especially the fat of seals to be curative. The sealers - the miners of the seal - and the Buryats consider the fresh, still warm liver of the seal a delicacy and eat it with great pleasure. Especially tender meat in young seals - Hubunks. In taste and tenderness, it resembles chickens. If the meat of adult seals retains the smell of fish even after heat treatment, then the meat of hubunks is almost devoid of any foreign odors. The meat and fat of the seal is used in the treatment lung diseases(tuberculosis), peptic ulcers of internal organs, first of all, of the stomach, etc. The liver of the seal contains many vitamins.

630. How is the skin of the seal used?

The skins of adult seals are used for lining hunting skis, for making clothes, mittens, shoes (high boots), etc.

The most running, beautiful, durable and expensive fur of three-four-month-old seals. The color of their fur is silver-gray, it is quite highly filtered at international fur auctions and is a currency fund. The skins of cubs up to two or three weeks of age have white, soft, fluffy fur, it lends itself to coloring.

Baikal seal, or Baikal seal

Mammals in Baikal are represented by the only endemic species - the seal (seal), whose entire life is directly related to aquatic environment. The Baikal seal is a relic of the Tertiary fauna. The time of its separation from the common trunk of ancestors is about 20 thousand years.

Lives in the "pearl of Siberia" a small seal - the Baikal seal, close relative ringed seal (lives in the Arctic Ocean), and belongs to the family of true seals, one of the three families of the order of pinnipeds along with eared seals and walruses.

No one still knows how the seal got to Baikal. This riddle is connected with the legend that Baikal is connected by a mysterious channel to the Arctic Ocean. But, of course, there is no tunnel. It is believed that the seal entered the lake from the Arctic Ocean through the Yenisei-Angara river system during the Ice Age.

The seal inhabits almost the entire water area of ​​Lake Baikal, but unevenly. Most of all it is in Middle Baikal (about half of the population) and in the east of the lake (one third of the population). The rest prefers South Baikal. The main rookeries are Aaya Bay, Cape Sagan, Cape Khoboy and, of course, the Ushkany Islands, the largest rookery. Here animals are attracted by good food, comfortable stones for resting and, most importantly, there are almost no people. Small groups of seals can be found on coastal rocks near the rocky capes of the northeastern coast of Lake Baikal.

An adult seal is covered with dense short hair, which has a uniform brownish-gray color with an olive-gray and silvery tint on the back, and is lighter on the sides and on the abdomen. But it is not the fur that warms, but the subcutaneous layer of fat, which reaches a thickness of up to 12 cm. It protects animals from cold and accidental injuries, is an energy accumulator, increases buoyancy, and in normally well-fed animals makes up more than fifty percent of body weight. The average weight of an adult animal is about 50–60 kg with a length of 150 cm. But there are very large animals weighing up to 100–120 kg with a length of 170–180 cm.

Seals are born with soft white fur, which makes them invisible in the snow - only large black eyes stand out.

Most seals spend the winter alone, each in its own small area, in hummocky ice, far from the coast, having, in addition to the main hole, up to two dozen additional holes. In the thicknesses of snow drifts, seals create dens, where white fluffy seals are born in females in March. There is only one entrance-exit in the lair - into the water. An adult seal scratches it with the claws of its front paws and does not let it freeze all winter. And the seal, barely born, also begins to dig passages, but in the snow. Going outside is dangerous for a seal - crows can easily peck at it.

Milk feeding lasts until the seal loses the cub during the May ice drift among the floating ice floes. In spring, seals love to soak up the sun.

The seals have very sensitive vibrissae-hairs on the upper lips and above the eyes. They help to navigate and catch fish. Sometimes you can meet a blind seal, but usually such animals are quite well-fed.

The seal's nostrils - two vertical slits - close when immersed in water and are kept closed by the force of water pressure.

The ears are just small holes that also close in the water. The seal has very good hearing: in good weather, it catches the steps of a person at a distance of 200–400 meters. And with a favorable breeze, a seal smells a person for 1.5–2 km.

The diet of the seal mainly consists of golomyanka-goby fish, which have no commercial value for humans. The seal eats these fish about three kilograms per day.

The Baikal seal has no natural enemies... Except for humans.

The reduction in the number of Baikal seals is mainly due to hunting - licensed and poaching, as well as chemical pollution of the lake.

The first regular research work on seals was started by Professor Pastukhov in 1966. With the onset of the economic crisis in the late 1980s, regular observations of the population ceased. Only in 1994 was it possible to organize accounting. total strength seals were estimated at a hundred and a few thousand individuals.

In connection with alarming reports of the death of the seal and the reduction of its population, it was necessary to conduct a new count in April 2000. Greenpeace conducted an ice expedition. 16 routes crossing Baikal from shore to shore were processed, and a complete count of the seal was carried out. Independent scientists involved by Greenpeace to the expedition made disappointing conclusions that the number of the unique seal has noticeably decreased.

In 1999, official bodies believed that the number of seals was 120 thousand individuals. In accordance with this, an unacceptably large quota for seal hunting was calculated. By the way, having learned about the expedition planned by Greenpeace, Baikalrybvod reduced the quota by almost 2 times - to 3,500 animals. Boat hunting was also banned.

It soon became clear that the size of the “main stock” of the seal population was only 67,165 heads. In addition, there is a general aging of the population due to the active fishing of seal cubs - kumutkans. During the period of ice hunting in the last 5–6 years, up to 90% of young animals died. As a result, the reproductive potential of the population is reduced and in the near future this may cause an even greater decline in its numbers. Groups of hunters forced the seal out of its natural habitats (located in the northern part of the lake) to the middle part, where climatic and food conditions are much worse.

Partially, the count of the number of the Baikal seal was repeated during the second Greenpeace ice expedition - in April 2001. Their results fully confirmed last year's findings. Now we can say with confidence that about 70 thousand individuals live in Baikal. The number indicates that the unique seal is under threat.

Greenpeace demands a complete ban on commercial hunting of seals for the next 4-5 years. An exception can only be made for the so-called "traditional nature management" of the local population.

Nerpa Nerpa is the name given by Russian industrialists in the north to two species of seals: the common seal (Phoca vitulina) and the ringed seal (Phoca annulata s. foetida). In our north, fishing on N. is carried out mainly in spring or autumn, and either the animal is shot when it

Baikal omul The Baikal subspecies (belongs to the salmon-like order, the whitefish family) differs from the Arctic counterpart in a narrow forehead and big eyes. AT summer period together with peled, it lives at depths of 20–30 m. In the reservoir, it reaches a length of 44 cm and a weight of 1.5 kg.

Weddell seal The Weddell seal is the most characteristic inhabitant of the Antarctic. It penetrates south further than all other seals and stays near the coast of Antarctica and adjacent islands. These seals usually lead sedentary life, moving only because of too

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 winter period tear apart a thin piece of ice in order to breathe oxygen. The constant presence under water at dusk formed a certain eye device, they are quite convex in her, which allows the seal to easily get their 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.

Her habitat a habitat - 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.

Food

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 den 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. General background the color 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 ubiquitous. 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, Novosibirsk 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 Okhotsk and Chukotsk, in the White and Barents Seas females bring offspring 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. characteristic hallmark 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.

Female ringed seals 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.

Food

The basis of the diet of the Caspian seal is different kinds bychkov. The second place in nutrition is occupied by sprat. In even smaller quantities, these seals eat atherina, shrimps, and amphipods. From valuable commercial fish in their stomachs they sometimes find herring, eaten by them 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.

AT summer months Caspian seals hold on open water scattered over a large area of ​​the Middle and South Caspian, and in autumn (September-October) they gather in the north-eastern part of the sea, where they lie in dense groups (males and females different ages) on shalyga.

On May 25, a regional children's and youth ecological holiday is celebrated - the day of the seal. It was first held in 2003 in Irkutsk.

The holiday very quickly became popular in many regions of Russia, including the Irkutsk region, the Republic of Buryatia and other regions of Siberia, and is included in the calendar of ecological dates. We have collected 10 unique facts about this rare mammal.

The Baikal seal is one of three species of freshwater seal found nowhere else but this lake. The main seal rookery is located on the Ushkany Islands, where you can find a lot of food and there are practically no people who pose the main threat to these animals.

Why is the Baikal seal interesting and unique?

1. The seal is the only mammal of Lake Baikal. According to morphological and biological features, the Baikal seal is close to the ringed seal that lives in the seas of the Far North and the Far East. There are also some signs of similarity between the seal and the Caspian seal.

2. It is not known how the seal ended up in Baikal. Some researchers believe that it penetrated into it during the Ice Age from the Arctic Ocean through the Yenisei-Angara river system simultaneously with Baikal omul. Others believe that the entire family of true seals (Caspian, Baikal and ringed seals) originally appeared in large freshwater reservoirs of Eurasia and only then settled in the Caspian Sea, the Arctic Ocean and Baikal. However, this mystery has not yet been solved.

3. The Baikal seal can accelerate under water up to a speed of 25 kilometers per hour. She is a consummate swimmer and can easily avoid danger at this speed.

4. The seal dives to a depth of 200 meters and remains under water for 20-25 minutes.

5. The seal can suspend pregnancy: no other animal on Earth can do this. In some cases, the embryo stops developing, but does not die and is not destroyed, but simply falls into suspended animation, which lasts until the next mating season. And then the seal gives birth to two cubs at once.

© Ministry natural resources and ecology of the Russian Federation. Sergey Shaburov

© Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation. Sergey Shaburov

6. Pregnancy of seals lasts 11 months. Females puppies in March-April. Fur seals are white, so they are called pups. This coloration allows them to remain almost invisible in the snow in the first weeks of life. With the transition to self-feeding by fish, the cubs molt, the fur gradually acquires a silver-gray color in two or three months old, and in older and adult individuals it becomes brown-brown.

7. The fat content of Baikal seal milk is 60%. The nutritional properties of milk help seals gain weight quickly.

8. Seals build their winter homes from under the ice. They swim up to a suitable place, make holes - vents, scraping the ice with the claws of their forelimbs. As a result, their house from the surface is covered with a protective snow cap.

9. The Baikal seal is a very cautious, but inquisitive and intelligent animal. If she sees that there is not enough space on the rookery, then she begins to rhythmically spank with flippers on the water, imitating the splash of oars, in order to frighten her relatives and settle in the vacant place.

10. Seals live 55-56 years. Adult animals reach 1.6-1.7 meters in length and 150 kilograms of weight. Sexual maturity occurs in the fourth or sixth year of life. Females are able to bear fruit up to 40-45 years.

© Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation. C. elderberry

© Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation. C. elderberry

From whom should the Baikal seal be protected?

Huge losses of the Baikal seal were recorded in 1996, mainly due to licensed and poaching hunting, as well as chemical pollution of the lake.

“Today, the approximate number of Baikal seals is from 75 to 100 thousand heads. This is quite a lot, but fishing is not being carried out now,” said Mikhail Kreindlin, Greenpeace expert on specially protected natural areas.

Formally, the Baikal seal is still a commercial species and is not listed in the Red Book, but hunting for it was banned in 1980. Until 2009, a quota was issued for industrial capture of 50 animals. Since the end of 2014, the quota has been issued only to research institutes.

“Currently, a drop in the number of seals is not recorded, but the state of Baikal cannot but affect its inhabitants. For example, the recent drop in the water level has led to the drying of spawning grounds for fish, the main food for seals. There are also threats that have not yet been realized, for example, the construction of the Shuren hydroelectric power station on the Selenga River, the largest tributary of the lake, which can also lead to severe shallowing and will indirectly threaten the seal too," said Mikhail Kreindlin.