Atlas der Säugetiere Nordrhein-Westfalens

Seehund

2 entries

Harbor seal

Rote Liste NRW: D Daten unzureichend

  entry

Phoca vitulina

The harbour seal is the most common species of earless seals (Family Phocidae) in the North Sea and along the northern German coast. The species is widely distributed in the Atlantic and northern Pacific. Harbour Seals are smaller and more slender than Grey Seals (Halichoerus grypus) and can also be distinguished form them by the more rounded shape of the head. The pelage is coloured dark grey and displays small irregularly distributed spots. Males reach a weight of up to 150 kg and females up to 100 kg. The animals feed on a variety of fishes and can also handle freshwater fishes.

Occasionally, individual animals swim into the mouths of rivers and in this way reach far into the inland, even up the Rhine to North Rhine-Westphalia. On October3, 2014, a Harbour Seal was observed in the Düsseldorf "Media Harbour" beaching below a hotel complex where it caught the attention of pedestrians and the media. The fire brigade and police appeared with boats and tried to capture the animal, which subsequently dove under and disappeared. The local press reported the animal as a Harbour Seal and as a Grey Seal. However, a video shown by the WDR provides evidence that it was a young Harbour Seal.

Author

Rainer Hutterer

Citation

Hutterer R (2025): Seehund (Phoca_vitulina).In: AG Säugetierkunde NRW — Online-Atlas of the mammals of North Rhine-Westphalia. Downloaded from saeugeratlas-nrw.lwl.org on 2025/04/01