Halichoerus grypus — Overview

Grey seal learn more about names for this taxon

You've arrived here by searching for Halichoerus grypus. Click here to see other search results.

IUCN threat status:

Least Concern (LC)

Brief Summary

Read full entry

Learn more about this article

"Some 15,000 gray seal pups are born annually on a 25-mile-long sand bar on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. This is far from the seals' feeding grounds, and both males and females fast during the mating and birthing season. The pups gain huge amounts of weight, in the form of blubber, when they are nursing. The female's milk contains 10 to 15 times as much fat as in human milk. The blubber keeps them warm and becomes their energy supply for 3-4 weeks after weaning and before they can hunt for their own food."

Links:
Mammal Species of the World

Trusted

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0)

© Smithsonian Institution

Supplier: Smithsonian's North American Mammals

Present in 27 collections

See all 3 collections in which this page appears.

Belongs to 0 communities

This taxon hasn't been featured in any communities yet.

Learn more about Communities

Disclaimer

EOL content is automatically assembled from many different content providers. As a result, from time to time you may find pages on EOL that are confusing.

To request an improvement, please leave a comment on the page. Thank you!