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Predators
Harbour seal
Harbour seal · Phoca vitulina
Harbour seals rest together on sandbanks along coasts and give you fascinating insights into the life of marine mammals.
Fact file
- Size
- Up to 1.80 metre long and weighing up to 100 kg, females usually slightly smaller
- Males and females
- Males and females are hard to distinguish externally, males are more strongly built
- Sounds
- Usually quiet, occasionally growl and grunt in groups
- Diet
- Feeds on fish such as herring and cod as well as crabs and squid
- Offspring
- After a gestation period of 11 months usually a single young is born in early summer
How to identify Harbour seal
You can recognise harbour seals by their rounded head, large dark eyes and V-shaped, splayed nostrils. Their fur is short, usually grey to silvery with irregular dark spots. Young animals are lighter, adults darker in colour.
At up to 1.80 metre in body length, the harbour seal looks compact; its streamlined shape and short foreflippers make it agile in the water. On land, harbour seals usually lie in the characteristic banana position: back arched, head and hind flippers in the air.
More in the app
With Wildful Stories+ you also get in the app:
- general viewing tips
- 9 places where you can see Harbour seal
Where Harbour seal live
Discover Harbour seal on your trip.
The app shows you where and when to see wildlife along your route.
