Male ringed seals in adulthood often have prominent face wrinkles all year round that are very apparent during breeding season, creating a heart between the brow. Cute. Katsunori is a strange outlier, because he has these big wrinkles all the time.
Thank you for coming to my sperg out today, anon. This world is one of true wonder if you stop to take it in. No matter how hopeless you feel, how much it feels like the sky is about to fall, the world that came before us will always be there. I'll see you tomorrow maybe.
Soulful thread. I love seals I think the Ribbon Seal is my favorite. Very beautiful patterns on them that seem so unique for an aquatic species. They also remind me of the pudding cups I used to get as a child.
Thank you for all the contributions, anons. This thread is going swimmingly :) Today's photo is of mochi-mochi chan molting like a little tempura shrimp.
>>5126803 what a depressing place to spend your whole life in, no wonder theyre at eachothers throats. what else do they even have to do but stare into space, fuck, or fight.
>>5126812 i see, poor little guys. those places at least in the west barely have enough money to stay afloat so i cant put any blame on the caretakers then for saving them from certain death out in the wild.
>>5126999 Ladogas are a subspecies of the ringed seal. In adulthood it's easy to confuse them with a ringed, but during infancy they have a very unique brown face that sets them apart. In general, they're more brown than their Japanese relatives and a little smaller, making them the 2nd smallest seals on earth. Russia is known for their "nerpa", a blanket term for all earless seals but often assumed to be just for Baikal seals by foreigners. Living landlocked in lakes for generations has given both species a reverse island syndrome. So tiny... is she even an apple tall? This was one of the first photos taken of her, so I would guess she's about 2-4 kilos in this photograph.
>>5127737 Idiot human! Triple chomp slash attack!! You call us greedy, but who's the strictly land based species destroying everything in their paths for food that they shouldn't be eating anyway! I piss on you!!
>>5127996 I love you anon... many of these I don't have. Blessed day upon thee.
>>5128016 Hehe, thanks. This particular picture isn't a reaction image. But it is my favorite seal picture I have in my collection. I am very greatful that these loveable marine mammals are not an extinct species, and that we have tons of photos of them that we can share online. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for, the Steller's sea cow, japanese sea lion, and the caribbean monk seal... But I am eternally thankful for what we haven't lost. :)
>>5128150 Yeah I know, but I'm greatful we still have the hawaiian monk seal and the mediterranean monk seal, even though they are both endangered. I'm glad that by some absolute miracle throughout human history these seals have not gone extinct.
By the way, I know it's not technically a pinniped, but I still find it hard to believe there used a be a sirenian that was the size of large car that was alive when George Washington was. And to think tragically this behemoth was hunted to extinction since it's discovery by Europeans within just 27 years... I've heard that because they didn't have any natural predators in the wild, they didnt view us as a threat even though the hunters came to their habitat to hunt them to extinction, they still didn't swim away.
>>5128150 What's especially tragic about the caribbean monk seal. Was in 1886 there was an expedition near some reefs and a small cay known as "The Triangles" where forty-two specimens were killed and taken away by the two leaders of the expedition and they sent the specimens to museums. So instead of trying to conserve and keep these beautiful pinnipeds alive and protected in a range, rather they had them butchered so they could be preserved in a museum.
>>5127737 I've always wondered what the job interview for stuff like this is like >so.. how do you feel about beating arctic animals to death? what sort of person applies for it? surely it pays less than other arctic jobs. "I want to work in the frigid cold but I absolutely do not want to work in the oil or fishing industry
Today I checked around again to see if any Tokkari Centre stuff had come up on the Japanese second hand market. Yowza!! Tsuki chan's baby furs are top dollar.
>>5128443 Nobody applies to be a seal clubber. Its seasonal work, done by local fishermen, most of it generational. They bring their sons out at 14-15, have them club a few seals and balls their eyes out, then give them the talk about how it fights overpopulation and is less painful than a bullet...
A picture of an incredible rare seal known as the "pirate seal", only found in one lake in Russia in the middle of Siberia. With a small population of only 260.
>>5127737 You can't be right in the head to do this. If seals don't trigger a strong caring instinct on you due to being extremely cute you don't deserve to live
>>5131863 I petted a big sea lion once. They look soft but the skin is thick with little give, and the fur is relatively stiff (though he was an older fellow so that might have been a factor).
>>5132562 Oh okay then. What's your favorite seal species? For me it's probably the spotted seal. Although I must say that baikals are a very close second. >>5132602 >>5132604 You are very lucky. In my Country it is a felony to pet a sea doggo.