ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



891 



THE HOODED SEAL OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 



By Harry 



LXCLUSIVE of the walrus, there are five 

 distinct species of seals inhabiting the 

 Atlantic waters contiguous to northeastern 

 America: — the Harbor or Ranger Seal {Callo- 

 cephalus vituUnus, Linnaeus), a small coastal 

 breeding seal which frequentlj^ ascends fresh 

 water streams; the Ringed Seal {Phoca hispida, 

 Schr.), also a small coastal breeding seal; 

 the Harp Seal (Phoca gruenlandica, Fabr.), 

 somewliat larger than the two preceding 

 seals, and, unlike them, breeding upon the north 

 Atlantic ice floes ; the Bearded or Square-Flipper 

 sometimes called the Big Seal (Phoca barbaia, 

 Fabricius), a very large seal, breeding along the 

 northern coasts ; and the Hooded or Bladder-Nose 

 Seal (Cystophora cristata, Erxleben), which, like 

 the Harp Seal, gives birth to its young upon the 

 winter-formed ice floes of the north Atlantic. 



The five young seal pups which I brought from 

 the north in May, 1912, and which are now in 

 the New York Zoological Park, belong to this 

 last species, and a brief description of the 

 species, its habits and its economic value, may 

 be of interest to tlie readers of the Bulletin. 



In size, the Hooded Seal ranks second to, and 

 sometimes rivals, the Bearded Seal, which is 

 classed as the largest of the Atlantic seals. A 

 full grown Hood "dog" will not infrequently 

 measure from eight to nine feet in length, and 

 tip the scale at one thousand pounds, while an 

 old female Hood will often weigh between 

 eight hundred and nine hundred pounds. 



In color, the adult is bluish-black on the back, 

 with a belly usually of lighter shade, varied with 

 ])aler spots, thougli sometimes the belly is of a 

 light-grayish tinge, witli darker spots. 



The male has a muscular sac or bag extending 

 from the nose backward to the center of the 

 head. This bag may he inflated at will, forming 

 a liood-like covering to the head. It is this hood 

 which gives the species its name. 



Whitney 



The Hooded Seal has one other distinctive 

 feature. While each of the other four species 

 mentioned has six front teeth or incisors in the 

 upper jaw and four in the lower jaw, the 

 Hooded Seal has but four above and two below. 



Both males and females will attack their 

 enemies with boldness and savage ferocity, 

 and in all my experience I have never encoun- 

 tered a more determined or dangerous antagonist 

 among wild beasts than an angry Hooded Seal 

 brought to bay. I have seen an old dog Hood 

 seize a gafl^ between his teeth and chew it into 

 splinters. They travel upon the ice with re- 

 markable speed, and the hunter must always be 

 alert, prepared to meet their vicious charge. 



Hood pups are nursed by their mothers until 

 about two weeks old, when they are left to 

 forage for themselves. After capturing the five 

 little pups now in the Bronx Zoological Park, 

 and taking them aboard our ship, the Neptune, I 

 was confronted with the difficulty of securing 

 proper food for them, and it occurred to me to 

 examine the stomachs of the carcasses of several 

 of the old ones which had been killed. To my 

 surprise I found that all I examined contained 

 perfectly fresh herring, and in nearh' every in- 

 stance the fish were whole and entirely free from 

 injury, without a tooth mark or scratch. From 

 a single one of the old dogs I secured in this 

 way six large fish. It is claimed that the seal 

 herds off the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts 

 destroy more codfish and herring each year 

 than are taken by the entire fishing fleet. 



The Hooded Seal is migratory in its habits. 

 During the summer the greater herds are found 

 along tlie southeast coast of Greenland. In 

 February and March they appear in countless 

 numbers on the winter-formed ice floes off the 

 Labrador and Newfoundland coasts, both in the 

 open Atlantic and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



