The Baikal seal, Lake Baikal seal, or nerpa (Pusa sibirica, obsolete: Phoca sibirica), is a species of earless seal endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Like the Caspian seal, it is related to the Arctic ringed seal. The Baikal Seal is the smallest of the true seals, and with the exception of a subpopulation of inland harbour seals living in the Hudson Bay region of Quebec, Canada (lac de loups marins harbour seals), the Baikal seal, the Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis), and the Ladoga seal (Pusa hispida ladogensis) are the only exclusively freshwater pinniped species.
It remains a scientific mystery how the seals originally came to Lake Baikal, hundreds of kilometers from any ocean. Some scientists speculate the seals arrived at Lake Baikal when a sea-passage linked the lake with the Arctic Ocean (see also West Siberian Glacial Lake and West Siberian Plain).
The total population is estimated to be over 60,000 animals, and hunting of the seals, once widespread, is now restricted.
Read more about Baikal Seal: Statistics, Description, Distribution, Abundance and Trends, Reproduction, Foraging
Famous quotes containing the word seal:
“The denial of our duty to act in this case is a denial of our right to act; and if we have no right to act, then may we well be termed “the white slaves of the North,” for like our brethren in bonds, we must seal our lips in silence and despair.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)