CBCGDF’s China Conservation Area for Spotted Seals -Panjin (CCAfa-Panjin) was recently established through the application procedure. This conversation area is dedicated towards the protection of spotted seals and their habitats. Mr. Tian Jiguang is the appointed director of this conservation area, under the supervision of the CBCGDF, he will be responsible for carrying out series of work such as; scientific researches, science popularization and education, public fund-raising, volunteer team building and so on. Videos of spotted seals breeding process will be track and shot soon.
 
Spotted seal (scientific name: Phoca Largha), also known as big-eared seal, large-tooth seal, is a marine mammal living in a temperate, frigid coastal and coastal areas. It lives in the northern hemisphere of the western North Pacific, mainly in the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan and China’s Bohai Sea, north of the Yellow Sea, and Bohai Sea Liaodong Bay is one of the eight spotted seals’ breeding areas. Spotted seals have migratory breeding habits, and they are carnivores, their food is mainly fish and cephalopods. It is the only fin-footed animal that can be breed in the sea of China. It belongs to the first-class protected animals in China.
 
The western Pacific spotted seal is a marine mammal living on temperate and frigid coasts, mainly in the northern Pacific Ocean and its coasts and islands, such as Chukchi, Bering Sea, Okhotsk Sea, Japan Sea and North Korea sea and so on. It is mainly distributed in China, the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, occasionally in the South China Sea. Panjin is in the southernmost of the world’s eight breeding areas (Liaodong Bay, Vladivostok, Tatar Strait, Sakhalin, O. East Coast to northern Hokkaido Island, Schellihof Bay, Kara King Bay to Olyutolski Kok, Anadyr Bay, Bristol Bay to the Pribilov Islands).
 
January to March every year is the breeding season of spotted seals, they breed on floating ice, and deliver after about 10 months of pregnancy they mostly produce one cub, most spotted seals form pairs during breeding season, they form a family group, female spotted seals are violent during lactation, and they are also very nurturing. When the ice melts, the cub begins to live independently in the water. After lactation, they no longer form a family group. A few individuals of spotted seals with late breeding season have to give birth on sandy beach along the coast. Cubs weighing about 5 to 6 kg at birth, and their bodies covered with white fetal hair.

(photo source: internet)

by/ Niu Jingmei, Harry