Seal

Seals are one of the non-member available animals on Animal Jam.



Before penguins and turtles were introduced to non-members, they were the only species that could travel on both land and water. When you first get them, they are cream colored and have a light pink nose. Seals, penguins, and turtles are the only animals that non members can get to go underwater.

Facts
Harp seals spend most of their time diving and swimming in the icy waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. These sleek swimmers often hunt for fish and crustaceans at 300 feet (90 meters) and may dive to nearly 1,000 feet (300 meters). They are able to remain submerged for up to 15 minutes.

During mating season, females form large colonies on floating ice and give birth to young. Older seals return annually to pack ice to molt. They lose their pelts and top layers of skin and grow a new fur coat every year.

Harp seals are sometimes called saddleback seals because of the dark, saddlelike marking on the back and sides of their light yellow or gray bodies of the adults.

Baby seals are born on pack ice floating in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Harp seal mothers are able to identify their babies by their smell. The pups don't have any blubber at birth, but quickly gain weight nursing on high-fat mother's milk. When the pups reach about 80 pounds (36 kilograms), their mothers stop nursing them.

The pups go without food for about six weeks and can lose about half their body weight until they dive in and begin to hunt for themselves.

The young seals are famous for their snowy white coats. Their fluffy fur is valuable and has drawn hunters to the Newfoundland breeding grounds for two centuries.

During the past several decades conflict between hunters, environmentalists, and animal rights activists has arisen at the breeding grounds. Today hunts are better regulated than in the past, but the harp seal remains perhaps the most commercially important seal, with hundreds of thousands killed each year.

Actions
On Land

:sitNE: [Sit Northeast]

:sitSW: [Sit Southwest]

:sitSE: [Sit Southeast]

:sitNW: [Sit Northwest]

 :dance: [S tomps both flippers and rolls its body and spins and poses, part breakdance]

 :sleep: [Laying head on flipper ]

 :play: [hops on tail then does a back flip]

 :hop: [Hop quickly]

<p class="MsoNormal"> Picture Pose-Seal Dance but frozen when the paw is up.

<p class="MsoNormal">Underwater

<p class="MsoNormal">:poseRight: [Standing right]

<p class="MsoNormal">:poseLeft: [Standing left]

<p class="MsoNormal">:dance: [twirls flippers around and around swaying side to side]

<p class="MsoNormal">:dive: [Swims downward and up]

<p class="MsoNormal">:swirl: [Swims in circles]

<p class="MsoNormal">:play: [Somersaults and twirls]

Trivia

 * Besides Penguins, they are the only animals to be able to walk on land and to swim underwater.
 * They have two dances. They do a break dance when on land and they will do a Hawaiian Dance while underwater.
 * They cannot sleep underwater, nor can any of the animals.
 * When seals were first interdouced to Jamaa, they were member. However, they were member for only about 6 weeks. That is a very short Members-Only time compared to most Member animals.
 * Seals were the first animals added to jamaa (other than the original 6).