📸 PhotoPhoto: Nina Zhavoronkova · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Baikal Seal
Pusa sibirica (Baikal Seal · バイカルアザラシ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its average body length of 1.3 m is slightly taller than a 1st-grade elementary school child (about 1.2 m) (Comparison).
- 💡 Its weight of 130 kg is about thirteen 10 kg bags of rice (Comparison).
- 💡 Each year 2,000–3,000 pups are taken for their skins, and adults are also hunted for meat, pelts, and oil (Animal Diversity Web).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Baikal Seal is the only seal that lives mainly in freshwater, found solely in Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is one of the smallest seals.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Adults have a silvery-gray back and a yellowish-gray belly with dense fur. The head is rounded, the body is spindle-shaped, and the foreflippers are larger and stronger than those of other seals.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It feeds mainly on deep-water lake fish, hunting at dusk and at night. In winter it scrapes the ice with its strong claws to keep breathing holes open, and after about 9 months of gestation it usually gives birth to a single pup on the ice from mid-February to March.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2016) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41676/45231738
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • mammaldiversity.org — 1005929
- • iucnredlist.org — 45231738
- • wikidata.org — Q4535
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Из жизни байкальской нерпы близ Ушканьих островов 02.jp
- • animaldiversity.org — Pusa sibirica
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Tracy A. Heath · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Pusa hispida)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.