Phoca largha Pallas 1811

• Main Authors: Russell A. Mittermeier, Don E. Wilson
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Lynx Edicions 2014
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Carnivora; Phocidae; Phoca; Phoca largha; Arctic; Bering Sea; Okhotsk; Chukchi Sea; Pacific; Lawrence Island; Foca; Manchada; Arctic cod; Beaufort Sea; Boreogadus saida; Chukchi; Diomede Island; Erignathus barbatus; Kamchatka; Odobenus rosmarus; Phoca hispida; Theragra chalcogramma; Alaska; seehund; walrus*
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6606920; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6606920

15. Spotted Seal Phoca largha French: Phoque tacheté / German: Largha-Seehund / Spanish: Foca manchada Other common names: Largha Seal Taxonomy. Phoca largha Pallas, 1811, quam quod observetur tantum ad orientale littus Camtschatcae” (= Eastern coast of Kamchatka, Russia). This species is monotypic. Distribution. N Pacific Ocean, from the Yellow and Bohai seas in N China N through Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk, Bering Sea, and Chukchi Sea to W Beaufort Sea and Alaska. Descriptive notes. Total length 161-176 cm (males) and 151-169 cm (females); weight 85-110 kg (males) and 65-115 kg (females). Newborns are 77-92 cm in length and weigh 7-12 kg. Spotted Seals are medium-sized, with a variable pelage that ranges dorsally from a dark gray to silver or tan background and slightly lighter ventrally, with dark splotches and spots scattered over the body. Newborns have a thick woolly creamy lanugo (fine, soft hair) that is molted near or just after weaning at c.3—4 weeks of age. Habitat. Particularly in areas of seasonal pack ice, with a pelagic distribution in winter and spring and a different coastal and pelagic distribution during ice-free months. For example, south of Saint Lawrence Island, Alaska,in late winter, Spotted Seals avoided large ice floes (more than 48 m in diameter) and preferred small ice floes (less than 20 m in diameter) ice floes. In contrast, sympatric Ringed Seals (Phoca hispida) and Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) preferred large ice floes, and Bearded Seals (Erignathus barbatus) preferred areas between large and small ice floes. Food and Feeding. Spotted Seals have a diverse diet of crustaceans, cephalopods, and fish, including walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), Arctic cod (primarily Boreogadus saida), sand lance (Ammodytidae), capelin (Mallotus villosus), saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis), Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii), flounders, and salmon, depending on area. Fatty acid composition of blubber of Spotted Seals from subsistence harvests near Little Diomede Island, Alaska (USA), differed from ...