The Great Bear Sea by Ian McAllister

Author:Ian McAllister
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-459805-21-7
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

MARITIME MORSELS

What sounds do pinnipeds make?

Many seal and sea lion species get loud and proud during their mating seasons, and some of their vocal selections sound eerily like songs. Most, however, are honks, hoots, snorts, barks, roars, short sharp gulps and bagpipe wheezes. Seals certainly are capable of imitating sounds, particularly those of other seals. But what this ability does for them is something for seals to know and scientists to find out.

All seals and sea lions are what biologists call pinnipeds, a word derived from two Latin roots: pinna, meaning “wing” or “fin,” and ped, meaning “foot.” So pinnipeds are said to be “fin-footed” or “feather-footed” creatures. Except, instead of feet they have fins—two near their chests and two at their backs, like the flippers you might wear when you swim.

And even though seals and sea lions differ in size, color, and where and how they live, they’re all basically the same shape. They all have rounded or slightly flattened faces, small ears and slit-like nostrils that close up tight when they’re underwater. They also have streamlined bodies that look like sacks of blubber on land, but move like mermaids in water. They differ greatly in size, however. The average harbor seal weighs thirty-five kilograms (seventy-seven pounds) while the biggest elephant seal weighs sixty times that much.

Harbor seals are common throughout the Great Bear Sea and much of the Pacific, but like a human fingerprint, no two are alike. They come in a variety of colors, from black to brown to gray to white, and some even sport spots like a leopard.

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