Gallery: Seals of the World

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Spotted Seal

Spotted Seal, Alaska

(Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

Ribbon seal

Ribbon seal, Alaska

(Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

The ribbon seal, a northern Pacific native, looks like it wants to bring the penguin look to the Arctic.

Killer whale and Weddell seal

Killer whale and Weddell seal

(Image credit: Robert Pitman/NOAA)

A killer whale identifies a Weddell seal resting on an ice floe off the western Antarctic Peninsula. The whale will notify other killer whales in the area so they can coordinate a wave to wash the seal off the floe.

Weddell seal

Weddell seal

(Image credit: Robert Pitman/NOAA)

Killer whales generate a wave designed to knock the resting Weddell off an ice floe near the western Antarctic Peninsula.

Caspian Seal

(Image credit: Simon Goodman, University of Leeds/Caspian International Seal Survey)

The endangered Caspian Seal (Pusa caspica) occurs throughout the Caspian Sea, using the winter ice sheets as a surface on which to give birth and nurse pups. Its population has declined by 90 percent over the last 100 years due to unsustainable levels of commercial hunting, habitat degradation and pollution.

Antarctic fur seal

(Image credit: Iain Staniland/British Antarctic Survey)

Female Antarctic fur seal.

Harbor seal swimming

Harbor seal

(Image credit: Copyright: Dr. Bruce G. Marcot)

Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina), Family Phocidae. Newport Bay, Coastal Oregon, USA. Credit &

Big bearded seal

Bearded seal

(Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

The bearded seal gets its name from its abundant whiskers. Copious blubber keeps these seals warm in their Arctic habitat.

Bundle of fur

Ribbon seal pup

(Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

John Burns of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game holds a fuzzy ribbon seal pup in this 1978 photo.

Big-eyed baby seal

Spotted Seal pup

(Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

This big-eyed baby is a spotted seal pup in Alaska.

Northern Fur Seal

Fur seal

(Image credit: Captain Budd Christman, NOAA Corps)

The northern fur seal is the largest fur seal species.

Stephanie Pappas
Stephanie Pappas
Live Science Contributor

Stephanie Pappas is a contributing writer for Live Science, covering topics ranging from geoscience to archaeology to the human brain and behavior. She was previously a senior writer for Live Science but is now a freelancer based in Denver, Colorado, and regularly contributes to Scientific American and The Monitor, the monthly magazine of the American Psychological Association. Stephanie received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.