Bearded Seal

The **Bearded Seal** appeared in 2015 videogame called *Kemono Friends*. The Bearded Seal is a mammalian Friend species that debuted in the original Kemono Friends mobile game and later cameoed in the Kemono Friends anime. She has since appeared in Kemono Friends Pavilion.

Bearded Seal has gray to light gray colored hair, long enough to reach her lower back, with a gray streak going from the top of her head down to the center of her bangs. Her hair is also darker at the back of her head. In her hair, above her ears she has two gray colored flippers that descend into a darker gray color at their ends. Beside the front of her ears on both sides of her face are long thick white colored whiskers. She also has brown eyes.

She wears a gray one piece swimsuit with twin gray horizontal crescent markings at the hips. She wears gray skin-tight sleeves that have a darker gray gradient at the fingers. She also wears knee length skin-tight gray socks that end in another gradient. Bearded Seal’s tail is short but thick and gray colored.

The Bearded Seal, named after their long whiskers, is a species of seal belonging to the family Phocidae, the family of true seals. They mainly reside on pack ice and drifting ice sheets in the circumpolar Arctic Ocean region, in areas less than 650 feet deep, as well as nearby seas up to 85° north. Bearded Seals are the largest of the arctic seals, usually growing to lengths of 7 to 8 feet and weighing as much as 800 pounds in females and 575 pounds among males. They mainly prey upon crustaceans, mollusks, and fish. Bearded Seals will normally dive less than 328 feet below the surface to hunt prey. They usually live and hunt alone but may occasionally form very small groups.

Female Bearded Seals reach sexual maturity in 4 to 5 years and males in 6 to 7 years. Males attract females with elaborate breeding calls that can be heard up to 12 miles away. During breeding, males will behave aggressively towards each other, engaging in bubble-blowing and physical attacks. Female Bearded Seals only give birth to a single pup. These pups are usually born during mid-March and early May on pack ice that annually brakes off from shore fast ice. Bearded Seal pups can swim a few hours after their birth. Mothers nurse their pups on the ice for roughly 18 to 24 days before they are weaned.

When caring for pups, mother Bearded Seals spend most of their time in the water with their pup to avoid predators. Bearded Seals are prey to Polar Bears, Orcas, Walruses, and Greenland Sharks. When hauled out Bearded Seals will position themselves near the edge of the ice and point their heads towards the water. This enables the seal to quickly dive if a predator is detected. The molting period occurs during the month of April and lasts until August. Bearded Seals spend most of their time molting hauled out on ice. During the arctic summer season many Bearded Seals will follow the receding ice and will end up traveling to seas such as the northern Barents Sea and the Chukchi Sea. Some will instead remain in the open waters and will haul out on nearby land when needed.

People living in arctic coastal settlements and indigenous peoples hunt the Bearded Seal for food as well as use and trade. Purposelessly killing a Bearded Seal is illegal under the Bern Convention which regulates human exploitation of wild animals. It is not known how large the Bearded Seal population is, though acoustic monitoring of their mating calls seem to suggest that the species is still relatively widespread throughout the arctic. The Bearded Seal population may become threatened in the future as global warming continues to reduce the amount and duration of ice in the arctic.