Ribbon Seal (redirected from Histriophoca)

Ribbon Seal 

(Histriophoca fasciata), an animal of the family Phocidae (true seals). The adults usually measure 1.5–1.8 m long and weight 55–100 kg. The pelage is dark, almost black in males and brown in females. There are four broad white bands: one encircling the neck, one around each fore flipper, and one around the rump.

The ribbon seal is distributed in the northern Pacific Ocean: In the USSR it is found in the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Tatar Strait. A single offspring covered with white fur is born on the ice in the spring. Ribbon seals feed on fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. The commercial value of the ribbon seal is small.

REFERENCES

Ognev, S. I. Zveri SSSR i prilezhashchikh stran, vol. 3. Moscow-Leningrad [1935].
Dal’nevostochnye lastonogie. Vladivostok, 1966.