Ringed seal: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the ringed seal lives – recorded in 6 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Pusa hispida
Group	Seals, sea lions & walrus
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	6 countries
Continents	Europe, North America
Class	Mammal
Order	Carnivora
Family	Phocidae

Where does the ringed seal live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the ringed seal in 6 countries and territories across Europe and North America.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the ringed seal endangered?

The ringed seal’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the ringed seal?

The ringed seal (Pusa hispida) is a mammal in the order Carnivora and the family Phocidae, genus Pusa. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the ringed seal

The ringed seal (Pusa hispida) is a small earless seal species found in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Its common name is derived from a distinctive patterning of dark spots surrounded by light gray rings.

The ringed seal is the most abundant and wide-ranging ice seal in the Northern Hemisphere; they can be found throughout the Arctic Ocean, into the Bering Sea and Okhotsk Sea as far south as the northern coast of Japan in the Pacific, and throughout the North Atlantic coasts of Greenland, Baltic Sea, Scandinavia as far south as Newfoundland. Two freshwater subspecies live in northern Europe. They are the smallest members of the seal family found in these regions, averaging 1.5 metres (5 ft) in length.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Ringed seal (revision 1373368548), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q203208 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).