Bearded seal

How it lives

Bearded seals live mostly alone and depend on drifting ice. Females give birth to a single pup, mainly from March to June, after about 11 months of pregnancy. The pup enters the water within hours of birth and is weaned after about 18 to 24 days. Males sing underwater, a long trill lasting a minute or more followed by a short moan, which can carry more than 30 km. Most live under 25 years, and some reach about 31. Polar bears and killer whales are their main predators.

Where it goes

Bearded seals follow the drifting ice. They haul out on floes to rest and give birth, and their movements follow the seasonal ice edge. I did not read tracking studies for the Greenland coast, so I cannot say how far individual seals travel there.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

There is no precise count. NAMMCO gives a global estimate of about 500,000 to 1 million and calls the data poor and outdated, and NOAA says more than 500,000. Greenland reported catches of about 889 to 918 a year in 2023 and 2024. Two subspecies are recognised, one in the Atlantic and Arctic and one in the Bering and Okhotsk Seas, and under US law the Beringia and Okhotsk groups are listed as Threatened. The IUCN lists the species as Near Threatened (assessed 2025); earlier assessments listed it as Least Concern.