Pictures and facts about the Hooded seal

Hooded seal

Order : Carnivora
Family : Phocidae
Species : Cystophora cristata

The Hooded Seal (Cystophora cristata) is an arctic seal also known as Crested Seal. Belonging to the family Phocidae, it can only be found within North Atlantic central and western regions from Svalbard to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, throughout the northern areas of Atlantic Ocean, in parts near Labrador, and in northeastern Newfoundland down to New England. It lives on ice packs and in the Atlantic Ocean's deep waters.

The Hooded seal is known for and named as such due to the 'hood' of the male, a unique and strange appendage that can be inflated to what resembles a red balloon. This appendage hangs from the forehead to the mouth's front and bulges out when the male is either threatened or excited. It is most distinctive, however, when it is mating. Its head is black, and its fur is silvery or grayish with a pattern of dark clouded spots. The front flippers have large claws and darker color than the body. The male is usually 2.6 meters in length and about 400 kilograms in weight while the female is smaller at 2.03 meters and about 300 kilograms on the average.

The hooded seal's most observable and most peculiar behavior still pertains to the male's 'bulge'. It balloons to about twice the size of a football when the male blows it up by closing one of its nostrils. The trunk becomes bigger especially when the male is mating. The hood forms initially in young males that are about 4 years. It becomes fully developed by the time he reaches 12 years. The bulge size varies according to individual body size although the average size is around 6.3 liters.

The hooded seal lives alone generally but converges in big groups during mating and reproductive season. This seal species has the shortest period for lactation among all mammals at four days only. Feeding mainly on deepwater fish like redfish, herring, Greenland turbot, cod, capelin, flounder, halibut, squid, octopus, shrimp, and mussels, a hooded seal can live as long as 30 to 35 years.

Image by Alessio Marrucci, licensed under GFDL

Facts about the hooded seal

Distribution and Habitat Hooded seals are found only in the central and western North Atlantic (see map) and their distribution generally follows the seasonal limits

The hooded seal is a large, very distinctive seal Males can grow to be 3 meters

The hooded seals are grey, with black irregular patches. (Full text)

cristata The hooded seal, Cystophora cristata, is large, measuring 1. (Full text)

Grayish with either light or dark blotches (less distinct in the female), the hooded seal is gregarious and apparently feeds mainly on fish. (Full text)

Hooded seals are a less numerous seal than the harp, but inhabit the same regions of the world. (Full text)

Hooded Seal The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) is a species of seal, the male of which has a movable, inflatable muscular bag stretching from the muzzle to behind the eyes. (Full text)

Hooded seals are not rare--their total population is estimated at 500,000--but they have been rarely studied for the simple reason that their pack-ice breeding areas are remote, hostile and mobile, in some places drifting 20 to 30 miles a day. (Full text)

In this, the hooded seal is the world record holder: A pup gains, on average, 15 pounds each day, expanding visibly from birth to weaning in an explosion of growth that takes just four days. (Full text)

The hooded seal, Cystophora cristata, is the largest of the five species, with a weight of up to 400 kg. (Full text)

Adult male hooded seals are approximately 2. (Full text)

Description & Fascinating FactsThe Hooded seal, Cystophora cristata, is named for the large elastic sac that extends from the nose to the forehead that expands into a large balloon-like ball in adult males. (Full text)

The life span of the Hooded seal is 30-35 years of age. (Full text)

The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata), is a large member of the hair seal family. (Full text)

The male of the hooded seal is about two and a half meters long and weighs 300 kg. (Full text)

The hooded seal is so named because of a large elastic nasal cavity, or “hood”, extending from the nostrils to the forehead which, when fully inflated, resembles (Full text)

The Hooded Seal, Cystophora cristata, is sometimes found on the Atlantic coast. (Full text)

Hooded seals are found only in the central and western North Atlantic (see map) and their distribution generally follows the seasonal limits of pack ice. (Full text)

adult male's forehead, the ice-breeding hooded seal is found in deep waters in the far north Atlantic Ocean. (Full text)

An unknown number of hooded seals are also shot each year by local hunters in Iceland. (Full text)

HOODED SEAL The hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) is a species of seal, the male of which has a movable, inflatable muscular bag stretching from the muzzle to behind the eyes. (Full text)