Ribbon seal

The ribbon seal is a medium-sized seal that is easy to recognise. It is dark brown or black with four broad white markings: a band around the neck, a band around the hips, and a ring on each side that encloses the front flipper. Adults grow to about 1.6 metres and 95 kilograms, and males are larger than females.

It lives in the cold North Pacific and the Arctic, mainly in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. In winter and spring it rests, breeds and moults on drifting pack ice at the ice front. The rest of the year it lives far out at sea, so very little is known about its life then. It is rarely seen from land, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

White pups, striped adults

Ribbon seal pups are born with white fur. After they shed it, the pups turn blue-grey on top and silvery below. Over the next three years the fur keeps getting darker in some places and lighter in others, and only at about four years old does the striking striped pattern appear. The contrast is clearer in males, while in females the pattern is often less obvious.

A built-in air bag

Ribbon seals have a big inflatable air sac connected to the windpipe that stretches along the right side over the ribs. It is bigger in males, and scientists think it helps make underwater sounds, maybe to attract a mate. Orcas and great white sharks hunt ribbon seals. A seal of this kind was recorded in the 1920s near the Taedong River in Korea, and the species is listed as protected there.

On the globe

The globe places the ribbon seal on the pack ice of the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. Look for the white bands on its dark body.