#Citizen satellite wave world time gps skin#

Grey seals can swim from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia in a matter of days. Recent improvements in tracking technology (satellite tracking, GPS tracking) has shown that seals can travel great distances and return to the same spots on shore with great precision. We don’t really know how seals navigate, but we do know that they are very good at finding their way while traveling at sea, in all types of weather conditions, day and night, while spending much of their time underwater. This can help a pup stay near its mother, but can also make a pup follow things that it shouldn’t (like you). Seal pups are naturally attracted to moving objects that are bigger than they are. If you see a harbor seal pup on shore, observe it from a distance and do not approach-its mother may be offshore.

#Citizen satellite wave world time gps skin#

When in close contact mothers and pups can identify each other by scent, recognizing scent from glands in the skin of their flippers and around their muzzles. Harbor seal pups make distinctive calls that can be heard for up to a kilometer. Seal mothers and pups can stay in contact by sound. Harbor seals are an exception, and mothers will leave pups on shore to feed offshore. Seal mothers and pups (as opposed to other pinnipeds) generally stay close together on shore and are not separated while nursing. Scientists have recently started to use the sounds harbor seals make during mating season to identify and track them.

Seals make many sounds both out of the water-like elephant seals, and under water-like harbor seals. A seal’s eye is also adapted for low-light vision with a lining (similar to a cat’s eye) that reflects and amplifies the weak light at depth in the ocean. On land the iris closes the pupil to a small pin point that lets the seal see clearly through the round lens. Their eyes are adapted with round lenses (like fish) and a large iris that fully opens underwater. Seals see very well under water-better than they do in bright light above water. They can hear high pitched sounds well above the range of human hearing. Seals can hear very well both above and below water. Blind seals in the wild seem to be able to hunt and feed without sight. Scientists think seals can use their whiskers to feel vibrations from swimming prey. Like cats, they have a very acute sense of touch. Seals have many well developed whiskers, much like a cat. Arctic seals, which spend time on ice, may sometimes eat fresh water ice and snow. They avoid drinking sea water if a seal drinks too much sea water it can become seriously sick. Their bodies are very efficient at removing and recycling water from their food. Like all marine mammals, seals get all the water they need from their food. How long have seals been around?įossil records indicate that the ancestors of modern seals first entered the ocean on the west coast, about 28–30 million years ago. There are three other species that breed in the Arctic and occasionally can be found in the area: the harp seals (the most numerous seal in the Northwest Atlantic), the hooded seal (the largest seal in the Northwest Atlantic), and rarely, the ring seal (the smallest seal in the Northwest Atlantic). There are two species of seals that breed in New England: harbor seals and gray seals.

Harbor and gray seals hauled out in Chatham, Massachusetts.