Caspian seal

Caspian Seal ( Pusa caspica )

The Caspian seal ( Pusa caspica, syn: Phoca caspica ) is an endemic seal of the Caspian Sea.

Features

Males grow up to 1.5 meters long and females up to 1.4 meters. They are dark gray or yellowish gray. Males have a dark spot pattern, while females lighter and carry less visible spots on the back.

Way of life

Within the Caspian Sea, these seals make seasonal migrations. So they keep on in the winter in the northeastern part, where the water is shallower. In the summer, they gather in the southern parts. This obviously also follow their prey, which consists of small fish and crustaceans.

After eleven months gestation period, the boys come in January and February to the world. They are suckled for one month before they are abandoned by their mother, now paired with a male.

Inventory and protection

After yet 160,000 Caspian seals were killed annually in the 1930s, led the Soviet Union, a hunting restrictions in order to preserve the species from extinction. Today, every year, about 25,000 seals checked hunted for their skin, and there are since the collapse of the USSR increased problems by poachers. The toxic discharges into the Caspian Sea, as well as a concomitant weakening of the immune system of seals contribute to a steady decline in their portfolio.

Estimates of the total population vary widely. Originally there may have been over a million Caspian seals. In the 1980s, the stock was estimated at just under 400,000. In the meantime, there should be only a little over 100,000 seals. The IUCN therefore leads the Caspian Seal considered endangered.