Pusa hispida

• 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; Pusa; Pusa hispida; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Okhotsk; Greenland; Lawrence Island; Gronland; Foca; foca anillada; Odobenus rosmarus; Phoca hispida; phoque annelé; ringed seal; Sea ice; Subarctic; Alaska; Ringelrobbe; walrus*
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/6607275; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6607275

18. Ringed Seal Pusa hispida French: Phoque annelé / German: Ringelrobbe / Spanish: Foca anillada Other common names: Fjord Seal, Jar Seal; Arctic Ringed Seal (hispida); Baltic Sea Ringed Seal (botnica); Lake Ladoga Ringed Seal (ladogensis); Sea of Okhotsk Ringed Seal (ochotensis); Lake Saimaa Ringed Seal (saimensis) Taxonomy. Phoca hispida Schreber, 1775, “Man fangt ihn auf den Kiisten von Gronland und Labrader” (= Greenland and Labrador). Several subspecies have been proposed based on geographicalisolation. Five subspecies recognized. Subspecies and Distribution. P. h. hispida Schreber, 1775 — Arctic Ocean. P h. botnica Gmelin, 1788 — Baltic Sea. P. h. ladogensis Nordqvist, 1889 — Lake Ladoga (W Russia). Ph. ochotensis Pallas, 1811 — Sea of Okhotsk and N Japan (Hokkaido). P. h. saimensis Nordqvist, 1889 — Lake Saimaa (S Finland). Descriptive notes. Total length 110-160 cm; weight ¢.50-90 kg. Newborns are 60-65 cm in length and weigh 4.5-5.5 kg. Ringed Seals are relatively small and plump phocid carnivores. They have robust nails on foreflippers used to abrade ice to excavate birth lairs and to keep breathing holes open in winter. Offspring are born with a woolly lanugo (fine, soft hair) that is shed when hey are c.2-3 weeks old. It is replaced by a relatively unspotted pelage that is gray dorsally and lighter silver ventrally. Pelage of an adult Ringed Sealis dark dorsally and lighter ventrally, with extensive rings covering back, top of head, and sides and with dark blotches on lower sides and ventrum. Habitat. Mainly associated with seasonal sea ice and fast ice (ice fastened to land) of Arctic and subarctic coastlines, islands, and bays. For example, south of Saint Lawrence Island, Alaska, in late winter, Ringed Seals and Walruses (Odobenus rosmarus) preferred large ice floes (more than 48 m in diameter), and Spotted Seals (Phoca largha) preferred small ice floes (less than 20 m in diameter). Ringed Seals depend on such areas to haul-out and give birth, nurse offspring, and molt. Small numbers of Ringed ...