Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Phocidae > Pusa > Pusa caspica

Pusa caspica (Caspian Seal)

Synonyms: Callocephalus caspicus; Phoca caspia; Phoca caspica; Phoca vitulina caspica; Pusa hispida caspica

Wikipedia Abstract

The Caspian seal (Pusa caspica) is one of the smallest members of the earless seal family and unique in that it is found exclusively in the brackish Caspian Sea. They are found not only along the shorelines, but also on the many rocky islands and floating blocks of ice that dot the Caspian Sea. In winter, and cooler parts of the spring and autumn season, these marine mammals populate the Northern Caspian. As the ice melts in the warmer season, they can be found on the mouths of the Volga and Ural Rivers, as well as the southern latitudes of the Caspian where cooler waters can be found due to greater depth.
View Wikipedia Record: Pusa caspica

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Pusa caspica

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
51
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 6.21
EDGE Score: 4.05
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Gestation [2]  11 months
Litter Size [2]  1
Litters / Year [4]  1
Maximum Longevity [4]  50 years
Migration [5]  Intraoceanic
Snout to Vent Length [4]  5.117 feet (156 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Coastal
Weaning [2]  30 days
Adult Weight [2]  189.599 lbs (86.00 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  11.023 lbs (5.00 kg)
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [3]  80 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  20 %
Forages - Marine [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  5 years 6 months
Male Maturity [2]  6 years

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Astrakhanskiy Biosphere Reserve Zapovednik Ia 167827 Astrakhan, Russia
Khazar Zapovednik State Nature Reserve Ia 658105 Turkmenistan  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Caucasus Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Russia, Turkey No
Irano-Anatolian Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Turkmenistan No

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Riede, Klaus (2004) Global Register of Migratory Species - from Global to Regional Scales. Final Report of the R&D-Projekt 808 05 081. 330 pages + CD-ROM
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0