RINGED SEAL (Phoca hispida)

RANGE. Arctic and subarctic oceans.

The ringed seal, named for the small rings dotting its fur, is the smallest, most widespread, and most ice-adapted of all Arctic seals. Its unique behaviors allow it to use sea-ice habitats that other seals cannot. Only ringed seals can make breathing holes in the landfast ice—the sea ice that forms along Arctic coastlines each autumn and winter. Using their strong claws, ringed seals scrape open and maintain multiple holes in the landfast ice as it forms and thickens. This network of breathing holes allows ringed seals to make use of food-rich coastal waters under the landfast ice while still maintaining enough places to surface and breathe. Unlike other seals, the ringed seal also excavates caves in snow drifts over its breathing holes, which it uses for resting and giving birth. These hidden snow lairs on top of the sea ice provide dry shelters that conceal pups from predators and provide insulation from the extreme cold during the six weeks when pups are nursing.

Arctic climate change is already resulting in devastating impacts to ringed seals. As snow cover decreases, it is becoming more difficult for ringed seals to build sturdy snow caves for rearing pups and resting. Earlier snowmelt is collapsing snow caves before the pups are weaned, exposing pups to death from hypothermia and to predation from hungry polar bears, Arctic foxes, gulls and ravens. [1, 2] Earlier sea-ice breakup can also prematurely separate moms from pups before pups are old enough or strong enough to survive. [3, 4] Declining sea ice has been linked to lower pregnancy rates and body condition for female ringed seals, likely due to reduced food availability and increased competition with other species moving northward. [5] And because the ringed seal is the primary prey of the polar bear, declines of ringed seals spell trouble for the polar bear.