What animals eat harp seal?

What animals eat harp seal?

Juveniles eat krill and other pelagic crustaceans, and the diet diversifies as they grow. Adult harp seals are eaten by killer whales and large sharks. Juveniles are eaten by polar bears and other terrestrial predators, including foxes and wolves.

Do humans eat harp seals?

Harp seals are hunted for their pelts, fuel oil and food. The value of the hunt netted Canadian sealers $16.5 million in 2005. Killing newborn harp seals, those seal pups with pure white coats, was banned in 1987.

What eats a little auk?

Little Auks are preyed upon by Arctic Foxes and Glaucous Gulls. Polar Bears will eat their eggs if they can find them.

What is the lifespan of a harp seal?

approximately 30 years
The maximum lifespan of a harp seal is approximately 30 years. Males are sexually mature at seven to eight years of age and females at four to seven years of age. Females give birth from late February through mid-March.

Who killed the last great auk?

The last Great Auk was killed by three fishermen in 1844. They hunted it, tied it to the ship, then stoned and crushed it — out of superstition. It was a tragic yet fitting ending for the flightless, penguin-like bird hunted to extinction in Northern Europe and America. A Great Auk specimen from a museum.

What bird is known as a little auk?

The little auk or dovekie (Alle alle) is a small auk, the only member of the genus Alle. Alle is the Sami name of the long-tailed duck; it is onomatopoeic and imitates the call of the drake duck.

What kind of food does a harp seal eat?

Harp seals moult in herds from April-May, the moult lasting for several weeks during which time the seals eat nothing or very little. Harp seals eat a wide variety of food, the most important fish species including capelin, polar and Arctic cod, herring, sculpin, Greenland halibut, redfish and plaice.

How many harp seals are there in Greenland?

A Greenland company was reported in February 1999 as planning to produce seal sausages for export to China, starting on a small scale with sausages from 10,000 seals a year. There is also some native subsistence hunting of harp seals and each year a number are killed by Inuit in Canada.

How old do harp seals live to be?

This allows all the females to give birth within a very small time period each year, when the ice pack is available for giving birth and raising their young. Harp seals may live 35 years or more. Harp seals are not considered to be threatened, although many are killed annually by hunters for fur. The population is estimated to be over two million.

How does the Inuit make the little auk?

Kiviaq is an Inuit dish from Greenland. It is made by stuffing a seal skin with 300 to 500 little auks. Once full and airtight, the skin is sealed with seal fat and the little auks are left to ferment for 3 to 18 months under a pile of rocks.