Bearded Seal
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Related to Bearded Seal: ringed seal
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Bearded Seal
(Erignathus barbatus), a pinniped of the family Phocidae. It measures 2.2–2.6 m long and weighs 225–360 kg. The pelage is grayish brown, sometimes with a few light spots on the back; the pelage of the newborn is dark. The bearded seal inhabits the arctic regions of the Atlantic Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the White, Barents, Kara, Chukchi, and Bering seas. It usually lives solitary in shallow waters and reproduces in the spring on drifting ice. It feeds on bottom invertebrates; more rarely, on fish. The bearded seal is a valuable object of commerce.
REFERENCES
Chapskii, K. Morskie zveri Sovetskoi Arktiki. Leningrad-Moscow, 1941.Mlekopitaiushchie fauny SSSR, vol. 2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963.
Krylov, V. I., G. A. Fedoseev, and A. P. Shustov. Lastonogie Dal’nego Vostoka. Moscow, 1964.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.