Ringed seal

The ringed seal (Pusa hispida) is a small earless seal species found in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Its common name is derived from a distinctive patterning of dark spots surrounded by light gray rings.

The ringed seal is the most abundant and wide-ranging ice seal in the Northern Hemisphere; they can be found throughout the Arctic Ocean, into the Bering Sea and Okhotsk Sea as far south as the northern coast of Japan in the Pacific, and throughout the North Atlantic coasts of Greenland and Scandinavia as far south as Newfoundland. Two freshwater subspecies live in northern Europe. They are the smallest members of the seal family found in these regions, averaging 1.5 metres (5 ft) in length.

The average lifespan of a ringed seal is 40 years. They have a solitary lifestyle, and their diet consists mostly of Arctic cod and planktonic crustaceans. They are a primary prey of polar bears – which are their primary predator – and killer whales, and have long been a component of the diet of indigenous people of the Arctic.

Recently, the biggest threat to ringed seals has been the changing temperature in the Arctic and the detrimental changes to sea ice that follow. Declines in snowpack and sea ice due to increasing ocean temperatures and atmospheric temperatures poses a threat to their survival. However, some projections indicate that the extinction of their predators due to warming may ultimately allow ringed seal numbers to thrive.