The ringed seal is named for the dark grey spots surrounded by lighter grey rings which lie across the length of their back and provide some camouflage in the Arctic waters in which they live. The smallest, most populous, and most wide-ranging ‘ice seal’ in the Arctic, they can be found with relative ease on the northern shores of Scandinavia, Greenland, and Canada’s Nova Scotia in and around Hudson Bay. There are estimated to be 250,000 ringed seals along the coast of Alaska too.
Although considered one of the smallest species of seal globally, ringed seals still manage to reach mature lengths of five feet, and weights of over 300 lbs. They can live for an impressive 40 years in the wild. Relatively solitary by nature, ringed seals have a diet comprising Arctic cod and small crustaceans, while they are prey for polar bears and killer whales (orcas) in return.
When at sea, ringed seals are incredibly agile, with the ability to turn rapidly and almost fold themselves in two to escape potential predators. On land, they are much slower, limited by the small claws attached to their flippers and their rounded blubber-filled bodies. Because of this, ringed seals will either rest on beaches with a clear line of sight, on ice floes it would be difficult for a predator to reach, or remain hidden in chambers within the ice featuring an escape hole into the water below.
These chambers or lairs are also where females give birth to their pups during the spring breeding period. They give birth to a single pup in March or April, following nine months of pregnancy. Both males and females remain in and around the ice floes of the Arctic for much of the year, only changing their preferred habitat at the height of summer when the ice retreats too far north even for them.
Other Arctic Wildlife
Arctic Fox / Arctic Hare / Arctic Wolf / Caribou / Musk Ox / Polar Bear / Bearded Seal / Beluga Whale / Narwhal / Walrus / Arctic Tern / Gyrfalcon / Puffin / Snowy Owl
