Seal's Habitat

Seals are semi-aquatic marine animals, which mostly live in the arctic region. Seals have slender and sleek bodies that are shaped like barrels. Seals spend most of their lives within the aquatic habitat they inhabit. They have short and wide flippers. There are different types of seals such as harbor seals, elephant seals and gray seals.

Seals, like the sea lions, spend most of their time in the water. Once in a while, they come out on the land to bask in the sun. Seals prefer habitats where there is minimal disturbance. They love islands and rocky shores. The reason is seals wish to stay close to the area with an abundant supply of food and ample sunlight for basking. Seals can stay under water for almost twenty minutes at a time.

For instance, the harbor seal habitat is shallow waters of the rivers and estuaries. One can find them where the sandbars and beaches are uncovered at low tide. The gray seal habitats are ice flows and islands. They can also be seen at a rocky shore or a sandbar close to the cold open waters. The reason being seals stay close to areas where there is ample quantity of fish or other smaller marine creatures available for them to nourish on.

The seal pups (young ones of the seal) are raised on the beaches and sand dunes/sandbars. The reason is that the seal pups are not old enough to swim and they are weaners. Also, the adult seals have blubber to keep them warm in the cold seas, while the blubber has to grow in the young ones. The mother seals teach the young pups to swim and find their feed in the tide pools and shallows near the beach. Hence, until the seal pups learn to swim and catch their feed, they inhabit the sand dunes near the beaches and estuaries.