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Appearence: A baby harp seal has white fur.The babies are helpless and the white fur helps camouflage it against the ice and snow. When the babies grow up their pure white fur changes into a dark grey waterproof leather. Adults spend most of their time in the water so no camouflage is needed unlike the babies on the ice. Baby harp seals grow to be very fat and very long. At two weeks old they are one meter long and weigh 74.8 lbs.(34 kg.) They grow on 45 % fat seal milk. Cow milk is only 4 % fat. Babies get lots of blubber this way. Adults have blubber too. Adults weigh up to 330 lbs. Harp seals are harp shaped so guess how they got their name?
Habitat: Harp seals live in the Arctic, close to Greenland. Unless the seals are babies they live in the water. It is warmer there than on the ice. The farthest from Greenland harp seals have been sighted is Nova Scotia, Virginia and France. In each case only one seal was seen.
Food: Harp seals will eat a lot of different sea food. Crab, krill, crustations, capelin, plaice, eels, shrimp, salmon, herring, octopus, flounder, cod, plankton, smelt, anochovies, jellyfish and squid are favorites. Pups drink milk from their mothers. One interesting fact is that if a harp seal pup eats, it's teeth grow. When it doesn't eat it's teeth don't grow.
Enemies: Harp seals babies have a silky, snow white fur. The fur is harp seal's downfall in a way. Sure it is beautiful and luxurious. But it is the fur that turns in. The fur is beautiful and harp seals can be great meat so the seals have many enemies. Some are natural, like polar bears, killer whales, and sharks. Some people, like Inuit have a fair deal. They only hunt what they need. Most enemies are cheaters. They hunt illegally and use harp seal fur they do not need.
Life Cycle: Harp seal babies have white fur. They are called "White coats". When they are born, however they have a tinge of yellow. They are called "Yellow coats" for about three days. White coats nurse for about twelve days. Harp seals are normally social. If they are not social, they are moulting. When harp seals molt they are about two weeks or older. They are called "Ragged Jackets" because they are a mixture between fur and leather. When they are grown they are called "Beaters" because they can't swim and 'beat' at the surface. When they are one year to three years old they become "Bedlamers". When they grow up and are old enough to have mates an odd custom. In mating season a male harp seal will dance to get the best mate.
Other Facts: Harp seals are beautiful as pups. It is the beauty that turns them in. Hunters kill many white coats each year. In the 1998 Canadian hunt 282,070 seals were killed. In Greenland 400,000 are estimated dead. And in the North Atlantic 500,000. There is a strong protest against the killing of harp seals. The people find whitecoats and dye the fur. The fur is thus ruined, but the whitecoats are saved. Still, there is a great demand for Harp seals. There are many reasons as harp seals are producive animals. Harp seal oil is a clear, colorless oil with no odor and mostly used for cooking. The guts can be used for sewing. Certain parts of male harp seals are sold to the Asian aphrodisiac market. Leather, fur and meat are used. In Russia, they dye the pure white pelts black and sell as hats. How do people get the stuff? Inhumanely. In a certain hunt there is video evidence of the seals being skinned, cut open, dragged with hooks while still alive. People want to save the whitecoats because they turn into amazing animals. In normal dives harp seals come up to breathe every five minutes. They can and will dive to a depth of 600ft. and stay down thirty minutes.
