AnimalvsAnimal
Common Seal Phoca vitulina🦭

Photo: Andreas Trepte · CC BY-SA 2.5

SpeciesCarnivoraPhocidae
Carnivores

🦭Harbour seal

Phoca vitulina Linnaeus, 1758

Spættet sæl (Phoca vitulina) er en ægte sæl, vidt udbredt langs kysterne i de tempererede og arktiske farvande på den nordlige halvkugle. I Atlanterhavet findes den i Nordvesteuropa, Østersøen, Svalbard, Island, Grønland og langs den Nordamerikanske østkyst. I Stillehavet findes den fra Den Californiske Halvø langs Vestkysten over Canada, Alaska og Aleuterne til Kamtjatka, Korea og nordlige Japan (Hokkaido og har dermed en de sæler, der er udbredt over det største område. Det er den mest almindelige sæl i de danske farvande. Med undtagelse af Lillebælt og Det Sydfynske Øhav findes spættet sæl almindeligt forekommende i hele Danmark. De vigtigste yngle- og hvilepladser findes i Vadehavet, vestlige Limfjord, Læsø, Anholt, Hesselø, farvandet omkring Samsø, Avnø Fjord og Rødsand ved Gedser.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
246
Photos
1
Measurements
12
vs you
≈ 1.5× your weight
Also called
Phoca vitulina, Common Seal, Common seal, common seal, harbour seal
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2016.

Population trendUnknown
Key measurements
Body mass
94 kg
Body length
1.81 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
48 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Harbour seal

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
94 kgrecord 150 kg · SeaLifeBase
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Record: largest individual on record

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female110 kgSeaLifeBasev25.04SeaLifeBase populates Weight independently of Length; the two are not guaranteed to describe the same individual. Verify before publishing.

Figures vary

  • 115 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length
1.81 m
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

By sex

  • Female1.7 mSeaLifeBasev25.04

Figures vary

  • 1.9 mSeaLifeBasev25.04
Brain mass
269 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
48 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 48 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Generation length
15 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
4.2 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
254 days
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 253 daysAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Litter size
1
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Trophic level
Carnivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Crepuscular / mixed
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Population density
5.68 per km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
94 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Harbour seal yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classMammalia
  4. ›orderCarnivora
  5. ›familyPhocidae
  6. ›genusPhoca
  7. ›speciesPhoca vitulina
Full lineage
  1. classMammals · Mammalia
  2. orderCarnivorans · Carnivora
  3. suborderCaniformia
  4. familyPhocidae
All 13 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammals · Mammalia
  9. subclassTheria
  10. superorderLaurasiatheria
  11. orderCarnivorans · Carnivora
  12. suborderCaniformia
  13. familyPhocidae
More

More about the Harbour seal

What it eats
fish80%
insects and other invertebrates20%
In other languages
Steinkobbe (nb), Seehund (de), Phoca vitulina (es), kirjohylje (fi), phoque commun (fr), Phoca vitulina (it) … and 25 more languages

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