Page 20 - World of Animals - Issue #28 Magazine

Harp seal

Threats to their homes

Harp seals rarely set foot on land, but their landscape. Ice that melts too readily
when they do come ashore, they board puts pups at risk of falling into the sea too
the Arctic ice pack. A thick layer of frozen early, before they are able to swim. And
water sitting atop the ocean, the ice pack with no mother around to protect them, the
undergoes a regular seasonal melt. The ice results can be fatal. It is not just the weakest
begins to melt in the spring and summer, pups, or those with lower genetic diversity
with little left by mid-September. As that are in danger. During seasons of
autumn rolls back around, the ice starts extremely low ice cover, entire generations
to reform and doubles in cover for the may be wiped out due to the harp seals’
winter. Not all ice melts, and some survives reliance on the ice as a platform for giving
the warmer weather of the summers from birth and rearing their young.
year to year. Generally sea ice consists of A reduction in ice could also have an
first-year ice, which is thin, and thicker ice impact on reproductive success through
that has accumulated in volume over time, a loss of breeding ground, meaning fewer
called multi-year ice. pups being born. However, much of this is
There has been a trend, in recent speculation and the long-term effects are
decades, for a decline in the thicker multi- unknown. At present, the species is listed
year ice, due to a warmer global climate. as ‘Least Concern’ by the IUCN and there
Harp seals rely heavily on this ice for much are currently an estimated eight million harp
of their life cycle and it is a vital feature of seals in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Harp seals rely heavily

on the pack ice for much
of their life cycle and it is a

vital part of their landscape”

Environmental factors
All the threats that harp seals face are down to humans

Habitat loss Collision Competition for food Oil spills
A warming climate Seals are oen As humans continue These are disastrous
has led to rising sea involved in collisions to deplete the oceans for not just seals, but
levels and a decrease with the propellers of of fish stocks, there all forms of marine
in the amount of sea large boats, as a lot have been reports life. Oil on the sea
ice. Harp seals rely of industrial fishing of starving and surface can coat a
on the pack ice for takes place in their emaciated vagrant seal’s fur, with fatal
mating and breeding. chilly habitat. seals found in Europe. consequences.

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