The long-faced seal is a rather large animal, whose body length is about two meters, in some individuals - and three. The body looks quite powerful, as for the head, its front part is quite long, as the name implies. These animals have a thick mustache, often with curved ends. By the way, long-mouthed seal, gray seal are synonyms.
Appearance
The color of the coat of sexually mature individuals varies greatly depending on the place of residence, gender and age. Most seals are gray in color, but the shades can be anything from pale to saturated. Almost black individuals are sometimes found.
The back of a seal is always colored slightly brighter than the belly. Spots of different sizes and shapes are randomly scattered throughout the animal’s body. They can be oblong, angular, oval. On the sides and stomach they are brighter and more striking, and on the back they are pale. The Baltic gray seal, this sweet ice lover, apparently differs in the color of its wool from other individuals who prefer land.
Habitats and Migration
Most of these animals inhabit the North Atlantic, namely its temperate zone. Everywhere they are found in the Baltic Sea. This includes the Bothnian (not all), Riga and Gulf of Finland. Seals are also common from the Barents Sea to the English Channel; they can also be found off the coast of Ireland and England. In addition, the Faroe, Orkney, Shetland and Hebrides Islands were no exception . They live in the coastal waters of Central and Northern Norway, as well as Iceland. The gray seal is thus found in many places. Its range is quite extensive.
There are two subspecies of gray seals: the Baltic, living in the sea of the same name, and the Atlantic, living in European waters.
What do these animals eat?
Long-necked seals eat mainly fish, while they consume invertebrates not very often and little by little. They also feed on shrimp, crab and some varieties of squid. In the Baltic Sea there is a lot of food for them: cod, eels, salmon, herring, bream.
As for the Murmansk coast, there they catch sparrow fish. They also eat cod. And what about European waters? There, seals feed on some species of flounder and cod, herring and halibut. But in the bay of
St. Lawrence more food. There, in addition to flounder, cod and herring, there are also salmon, sharks, mackerel and stingrays. This is what the gray seal eats. The Red Book, by the way, has long been replenished with these animals.
Reproduction and growth
Long-faced seals are interesting in that females breed at absolutely different times. And this applies not only to individuals from different habitats, but also to animals from the same population. First of all, Baltic seals whelp, having chosen the ice of the sea of the same name; they usually produce offspring in late winter and early spring. What can be said about animals living in other places? They all give birth on land, and this happens much later than the Baltic seals. Timing is quite extended. This is what makes gray seals different from many other animals.
Just born babies are covered with snow-white, silky, long and thick hair. It has a brownish tint. But soon there is a change of fur, and the cubs are overgrown with short and thick hair, characteristic of sexually mature individuals. When females feed the seals with milk, they grow quite quickly, this lasts about three weeks.
Some females mature at the age of five, but by the age of six, absolutely all of them become sexually mature. But what about the males? They become adults, as a rule, at the age of seven, however, they begin to take part in reproduction, obviously, only when they turn ten. It is at this age that the gray seal can already be considered sexually mature.
Lifestyle
The behavior of long-faced seals depends mainly on what ecological form they belong to. Let's take a look at St. Lawrence Bay and the Baltic Sea. There is an ice form. During molting and breeding these animals can be seen lying on ice floes near the shore. In other periods, the gray seal is almost constantly in the water.
As for individuals living in other territories, they several times during the year go to land, usually in places that they have long been chosen. These are mainly small islands or other inaccessible areas with rocky shores. However, it is important for seals that the surfaces are straight and the descents to the water are not too steep.
These animals tend to gather in large groups, especially during breeding. Two types of sexual relations are common among them: polygamous (besides them, typical of the elephant seals) and monogamous (typical of most real seals). The so-called harems can be observed exclusively on land - there are often several female representatives gathering around one male.