#Harbour seal

[modmad]

Wanted to try again at a fursona (love my other one, la Creatura, but they're a bit complicated!) Tried to keep it simple and soft, and boiled it down to two creatures I love: seals and donkeys! behold. my new fursona! a Sonkey! name wip??? I am amazed at how attached I am to them already! they are also very inspired by my favourite cuddly toy, Sweep! I love them a lot!!! uses any and all pronouns but defaults to they/them :3

[silky-selkie]

10/10 bananas for this fella

[robot-pup]

3 seal species I see commonly mistaken for each other, and how to tell them apart!

starting off with

Harbour seals/common seals

Harbour seals have a wide variety in coat colours, some having a more sandy coat whereas others have more spotty or dark coats. I find the easiest way to tell them apart is in their face shape!

Pups are spotty with short baby fur, they tend not to be too fat as compared to species that live in colder climates.

Spotted seals

Spotted seals are well... spotted! they have a light underbelly and a darker grey top side, their whole bodies are covered in spots.

Spotted seal pups are fluffy and fat, they have a white coat. Not to be mistaken for harp seal pups as they lack the darker snout that harp seals have.

Ringed seals

Ringed seals are smaller than harbour and spotted seals, they have ring like markings along their backs and have shorter snouts. They live in cold climates so are very blubbery and round. Male ringed seals get dark wrinkly faces as they reach maturity.

Ringed seal pups are very small and white, with short snouts and little eyebrow dots.

hope this helps!

[bug-buddiest]

Baby!!!!

[cadere-art]

Harbour seal for @banjoodle. Love how this little guy came out!

[northernpintail]

Seals sunning themselves on the old barge, they’re all stained orange from the rust

[claypigeonpottery]

selkie amidst seals!! it was very close to winning the poll

and here it is rotating

[juleyabra]

seal doodles

[namu-the-orca]

Those other marine mammals

For the UK bycatch project, I also had to illustrate some other species than the cetaceans I am so familiar with. Animals with legs and fur and nails... foreign concepts for sure. Jokes aside, it's always a challenge to illustrate a species you don't really know. I always wonder whether a seal or otter scientist would also approve of these, or if mistakes would immediately jump out to them (like they do for me with cetacean illustrations).

I don't really like how the harbour seal turned out, it looks too much like a stuffed animal to me. And the grey seal was a challenge because frankly, those males in real life look like weird muppets. So when drawing you're constantly torn between "does it look weird because I'm messing up or because I'm doing well?" haha. In the end I'm happy with it though! And the otter I'm very fond of. Such keen eyed creatures, I hope to see one in the wild some day.

[scandalousadventures]

YOINK

[kthecritter]

harbour seal wallpaper with themes of the beach, underwater stuff, sea shells, sunsets, beach/seal outfits, and cyan for @genderlesspersonx ! I hope you enjoy! this was actually a lot of fun to make, hope I included all the stuff :3

[fluffywolfboyy]

Info about seals!

There are a lot of species I put - hence the read more. If I've missed any that you want me to add lmk /gen

This post used to have wayyy more links, and had the Baikal seal and the Antarctic Fur seal, but tumblr wouldn't let me post it without deleting stuff T-T

I hope you find this useful and if you do end up reading through some of these links let me know your favourite fact! /nf

Links to videos are highlighted in red

Ribbon

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

Alaska Department of Fish and Game <- This is a PDF

Animalia

Harp

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

Ocean Conservancy

Fisheries and Oceans Canada

NAMMCO

NatGeo - The Big Freeze

BBC

Northern Elephant

NOAA Fisheries

Marine Mammal Centre

MarineBio

Palomar Films

Southern Elephant

ASOC

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

Real Science

Harbour/Common

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

Scottish Wildlife Trust

Seal Sitters

NAMMCO

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Grey

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

NAMMCO

Ringed

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

Centre for Biological Diversity

NAMMCO

Leopard

ASOC

MarineBio

Leopard Seals

Seal Conservation Society

Crabeater

ASOC

MarineBio

Seal Conservation Society

Australian Antarctic Program

Weddell

ASOC

MarineBio

Australian Antarctic Program

Spotted

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

Animalia

Centre for Biological Diversity

Alaska Department of Fish and Game <- This is a PDF

Ross

ASOC

Seal Conservation Society

Australian Antarctic Program

Animalia

Animal Diversity Web

Caspian

Seal Conservation Society

Caspian Seal Project

MMPATF

Animalia

'Caspian Seal' The scientific and educational film

Hooded

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarineBio

MarLIN

Whale and Dolphin Conservation

NAMMCO

NatGeo - World's Weirdest

Hawaiian Monk

NOAA Fisheries

Marine Mammal Centre

MarineBio

National Wildlife Federation

State of Hawai'i Division of Aquatic Resources

Marine Mammal Commission

Centre for Biological Diversity

Mediterranean Monk

NOAA Fisheries

MarineBio

Marine Mammal Commission

Animalia

Project Manaia

Bearded

NOAA Fisheries

Seal Conservation Society

MarLIN

Alaska Department of Fish and Game

Centre for Biological Diversity

NAMMCO

[silky-selkie]

My two only braincells meeting up once a month

[funsizeart]

Playful seal

[bug-buddiest]

some days I wish this was me, just laying on a rock... too round to feel uncomfortable from the sharp edges

[fishboyblogger]

The harbour seal tank!