#0048 · 🦊 mammals

Ringed Seal

🇳🇱 Kleine Zeehond ·Pusa hispida

LCleast concern 🦊 Mammals 📍 in the Netherlands

8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

what is it?

The ringed seal ( Pusa hispida or Phoca hispida ), also known as the jar seal and as netsik or nattiq by the Inuit, is an earless seal (family: Phocidae) inhabiting the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. 5 m in length, with a distinctive patterning of dark spots surrounded by light grey rings, hence its common name. It is the most abundant and wide-ranging ice seal in the...

base stats

NL sightings 6iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 912iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

Spotted 6 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #48 most seen of the mammals in NL.
912 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber in 1775 (251 years ago).