Ringed seal
Pusa hispida (Schreber, 1775)
The ringed seal (Pusa hispida), also called the jar seal or fjord seal, is a large marine mammal in the family Phocidae, order Carnivora. It is a diurnal piscivore with a representative adult body mass of 71 kg, and our sources report adults up to 88 kg.
Quick facts about the ringed seal
The ringed seal is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category, and its lifespan is recorded as 43 years, with values up to 46 years.
- Weight
- 71 kg – 88.1 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- 1.5 msrc for Length
- Lifespan
- 43 years – 46 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Piscivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 251 days – 335 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 6 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- By day (diurnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Marinesrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
How big is the ringed seal?
Photos of the ringed seal
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the ringed seal live?
Not recorded
What is 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.
The average lifespan of a ringed seal is 40 years. They have a solitary lifestyle, and their diet consists mostly of Arctic cod and planktonic crustaceans. They are a primary prey of polar bears – which are their primary predator – and killer whales, and have long been a component of the diet of indigenous people of the Arctic.
Recently, the biggest threat to ringed seals has been the changing temperature in the Arctic and the detrimental changes to sea ice that follow. Declines in snowpack and sea ice due to increasing ocean temperatures and atmospheric temperatures poses a threat to their survival. However, some projections indicate that the extinction of their predators due to warming may ultimately allow ringed seal numbers to thrive.
From the Wikipedia article “Ringed seal” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ringed_seal&oldid=1383579883), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the ringed seal endangered?
The ringed seal is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the ringed seal classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCarnivora
- familyPhocidae
- genusPusa
- SpeciesPusa hispida (Schreber, 1775)
Synonyms Pagomys foetidus, Phoca foetida, Phoca hispida, Phoca hispida ochotensis, Pusa hispida ochotensis
Other names and names in other languages (61)
- Fjord sealEnglish
- Jar sealEnglish
- فقمة حلقيةArabic
- Пръстенчат тюленBulgarian
- Reunig kelc'hennekBreton
- Foca ocel·ladaCatalan
- tuleň kroužkovanýCzech
- Morlo CylchogWelsh
- Morloi CylchogWelsh
- ringsælDanish
- RingelrobbeGerman
- Δακτυλιοφόρος φώκιαGreek
- foca oceladaSpanish
- foca anilladaSpanish
- ViigerhüljesEstonian
- norppaFinnish
- veluFrench
- phoque anneléFrench
- phoque marbréFrench
- Lytse seehûnWestern Frisian
- ròn cearcallachScottish Gaelic
- ròin chearcallachScottish Gaelic
- פוסה טבעתיתHebrew
- gyűrűsfókaHungarian
- QaiġulikInupiaq
- HringanóriIcelandic
- foca dagli anelliItalian
- ワモンアザラシJapanese
- NatseqKalaallisut
- 고리무늬물범Korean
- MuštLivonian
- žieduotasis ruonisLithuanian
- Pogainais ronisLatvian
- Прстенеста фокаMacedonian
- Цагаригт далайн хавMongolian
- ringselNorwegian Bokmål
- stinkrobDutch
- kleine zeehondDutch
- ringelrobDutch
- snaddNorwegian Nynorsk
- NerpaPolish
- Foka obrączkowanaPolish
- foka obrączokwanaPolish
- nerpa obrączkowanaPolish
- Foca-aneladaPortuguese
- кольчатая нерпаRussian
- нерпа кольчатаяRussian
- НьиэрпэYakut
- GáddenjuorjuNorthern Sami
- gahtteNorthern Sami
- gáhttiNorthern Sami
- kolobarjasti tjulenjSlovenian
- vikareSwedish
- vikarsälSwedish
- kıvrak fokTurkish
- halkali fokTurkish
- акібаUkrainian
- Кільчаста нерпаUkrainian
- Нерпа кільчастаUkrainian
- 圆海豹Chinese
- 環斑海豹Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the ringed seal
Other species in the same genus Pusa.
Baikal seal
Pusa sibirica
Caspian seal
Pusa caspica
CompareRinged seal vs Baikal sealRinged seal vs Caspian seal
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the ringed seal?
The ringed seal is a large marine mammal in the family Phocidae, part of the order Carnivora.
How heavy is a ringed seal?
An adult ringed seal has a representative body mass of 71 kg, and our sources report adults up to 88 kg.
What does the ringed seal eat?
The ringed seal is a piscivore, and its trophic level is carnivore.
Is the ringed seal endangered?
No. The ringed seal is listed as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a ringed seal live?
The ringed seal's lifespan is recorded as 43 years, and our sources report values up to 46 years.
How many young does a ringed seal have?
A ringed seal has 1 young per litter and 1 litter per year, after a gestation period of 251 days.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Ringed seal (Pusa hispida). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/ringed-seal
“Ringed seal (Pusa hispida).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/ringed-seal.
@misc{ringed_seal_2026,
title = {Ringed seal (Pusa hispida)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/ringed-seal},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}