The harbor seal, also known as the common seal, has five subspecies. The western Atlantic subspecies is found in Eastern North America.
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| 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.
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| Harbor seals on rocks in Passamaquoddy Bay. |
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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