Harp Seal
The Harp seal is a sea mammal of the fin-footed animal group and the Phocidae family (true seals with no external ears). The adult male has an irregular horseshoe-shaped black band across its back. This ‘harp’ joins across the shoulders and curves toward the abdomen, then goes back up toward the hind flippers, where it disappears. The main color of its coat is pale grey when dry and steel blue when wet. Its head and tail are black, and its front flippers and stomach are whitish. Adult females have the same pattern, except that their head, tail and the ‘harp’ are usually lighter in color. Some females have irregular dark spots on their backs with no clear ‘harp’ pattern. Sometimes very dark ‘smutty’ seals can be seen, which are usually males believed to be melanistic or darkly pigmented color forms.
