The Baikal seal, Lake Baikal seal, or nerpa (Pusa sibirica, obsolete: Phoca sibirica), is a species of earless seal endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Like the Caspian seal, it is related to the Arctic ringed seal. The Baikal Seal is the smallest of the true seals, and with the exception of a subpopulation of inland harbour seals living in the Hudson Bay region of Quebec, Canada (lac de loups marins harbour seals), the Baikal seal, the Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis), and the Ladoga seal (Pusa hispida ladogensis) are the only exclusively freshwater pinniped species.
It remains a scientific mystery how the seals originally came to Lake Baikal, hundreds of kilometers from any ocean. Some scientists speculate the seals arrived at Lake Baikal when a sea-passage linked the lake with the Arctic Ocean (see also West Siberian Glacial Lake and West Siberian Plain).
The total population is estimated to be over 60,000 animals, and hunting of the seals, once widespread, is now restricted.
Read more about Baikal Seal: Statistics, Description, Distribution, Abundance and Trends, Reproduction, Foraging
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