Saturday, September 15, 2018

Western Atlantic Harbor Seal

The harbor seal, also known as the common seal, has five subspecies. The western Atlantic subspecies is found in Eastern North America. 
The seal to the bottom right has the v-shaped nostrils and the one above it has the dog-shaped head instead of the straight profile of a gray seal. 
They are brown, silvery white, tan or gray and have v-shaped nostrils. In the western Atlantic, where there are gray seals, they are distinguished from gray seals by size, they are much smaller; by the shape of the head, the gray seal has a straight profile while the harbor seal has a head with the shape of a dog; and the nostrils of the gray seal are set wide apart. 
We saw a few western Atlantic harbor seals in Passamaquoddy Bay outside of Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. Further out we saw gray seals and I did not realize we'd seen harbor seals until examining my photos. 
Harbor seals on rocks in Passamaquoddy Bay.

1 comment:

  1. The way they hold their tails up when they lie on their stomachs is interesting. Do you know why they do that?

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