Can you say "S" for Seal. The gray seal coloration varies from blackish with white specks and splotches to whitish with black markings. Generally, males are darker and females lighter. Pups are born white with a yellowish tint. Males are much larger than females, weighing 375 to 880 pounds and growing to almost ten feet long. Females weigh between 220 and 572 pounds and reach lengths of up to seven and a half feet.  They breed from eastern Canada to the Baltic Sea. Canadian breeding areas include the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and coastal Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Labrador. They eat a wide variety of fish, squid, octopus, and crustaceans such as shrimp. Sometimes they eat a seabird or two. In the wild, gray seal females live up to 40 years, while males live up to 30 years. In zoos, they can live into their forties. The gray seal's Baltic population is listed as endangered on the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Animals. Can you imagine the gray seal's scientific name, Halichoerus grypus, derives from the Greek words meaning "hook-nosed sea pig." I didn't know that.

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