AI overview
The Baikal seal is a small seal species found exclusively in Lake Baikal in Siberia, making it one of the world's few freshwater seal populations. It matters because its survival depends on the health of Lake Baikal's unique ecosystem and its existence offers scientists insight into how marine mammals adapted to life in isolated freshwater environments.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Species
Least ConcernBaikal seal
SPECIES
- KingdomBacteria
- PhylumPlanctomycetota
- ClassPlanctomycetia
- OrderPirellulales
- FamilyUBA1268
Habitatfreshwater
Maximum longevity: 56 years (captivity) Observations: Including a period of delayed implantation, the total gestation lasts just over 9 months (Ronald Nowak 2003). Females breed until they are about 30 years old. One wild specimen was estimated to be 56 years old based on teeth annuli (Thomas et al. 1982). Little is known about their longevity in captivity, but one specimen was still alive at 23.1 years of age (Richard Weigl 2005)
via GBIF · IUCN
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
Article
The Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica), also known as Lake Baikal seal or nerpa (нерпа), is a species of earless seal endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. The Baikal seal is one of the smallest earless/true seals, and one of the few exclusively freshwater pinniped species. The related Caspian seal inhabits another lake, albeit being saltwater, the Caspian Sea. Both species are closely related to the ringed seal, which inhabits the Arctic Ocean.
A subpopulation of inland harbour seals living in the Hudson Bay region of Quebec, Canada (the Lacs des Loups Marins harbour seals), as well as the Saimaa ringed seal and the Ladoga seal (both ringed seal subspecies), are also found in fresh water, but these seals are part of species that also have marine populations, instead of being distinct species.