Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Grey Seal

1 Species ID Suggestions

Grey Seal
Halichoerus grypus Grey Seal


Sign in to suggest organism ID

3 Comments

ToriMiller
ToriMiller 12 years ago

This is one of the Cutest, sweetest series of photos! I love love it!!

SaM
SaM 12 years ago

Yeah Its in The Zoo aquarium

galewhale..Gale
galewhale..Gale 12 years ago

Was this sighting in an Aquarium?
Grey seals and Sea lions are both Pinnipeds but are from different families.
Grey seals are from the family Phocidae "true or earless" seals because they have no earflap just a small ear hole. They cannot rotate their hind flippers under their body in order to "walk"... on land they pull themselves along with their foreflippers dragging their hind flippers. In the water they use their hind flippers for propulsion and foreflippers for steering.

Sea Lions are are from the Otariidae family because they have tiny earflaps. "Eared" seals can walk on land because they can rotate their hind hip forward ... it isn't graceful but they do travel over land much more easily than "true seals". They use their fore flippers for propulsion.

I'm pretty sure this is a grey seal not a harbor or common seal because it has a longer muzzle and its nostrils form a W rather than a V shape. Grey seals are also larger than Harbor seals, but both are "true seals".

SaM
Spotted by
SaM

Riga, Latvia

Spotted on Apr 12, 2011
Submitted on Apr 12, 2011

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Grey seal Grey seal Grey Seal Gray Seal

Nearby Spottings

Spotting IGUANA IGUANA Monkey
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team