Bearded seal
Amazing fact
Bearded seals sometimes sleep upright in the sea with their heads at the surface.
NOAA Fisheries
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Bearded seals sometimes sleep upright in the sea with their heads at the surface.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Bearded seal
- Scientific name
- Erignathus barbatus
- Japanese name
- アゴヒゲアザラシ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Carnivora
- Family
- Phocidae
- Genus
- Erignathus
A seal of the Arctic Ocean, the Sea of Okhotsk and other northern seas, where it lives in fairly shallow water.
Long white whiskers on its face give it its name. The whiskers are very sensitive and help it find food on the sea floor.
It is often seen resting at the edge of floating ice with its head toward the water, so it can slip into the sea quickly if chased by a predator.
How the Bearded seal lives
They are active during the day and search for food in the sea. They mainly suck up soft-bodied prey from near the sea floor. They can make breathing holes in thin ice with their heads or claws. They tend to move north in summer and south in autumn as the ice cover changes.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebNOAA FisheriesBasic data
- Size
- Body length: 2.3 m
- Weight
- 250 kg
- Diet
- Fish, octopuses, crabs, shrimp, and shellfish
- Range
- Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Sea of Okhotsk
Where the Bearded seal has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- アゴヒゲアザラシ
- 简体中文
- 髯海豹
- 繁體中文
- 髯海豹
- 한국어
- 턱수염물범
- Español
- Foca barbuda
- Français
- Phoque barbu
- Deutsch
- Bartrobbe
- Português (Brasil)
- Foca-barbuda
- Italiano
- Foca barbata
- العربية
- عجل البحر الملتحي
- Tiếng Việt
- Hải cẩu có râu
- Русский
- Морской заяц
- Türkçe
- Sakallı fok
- ไทย
- แมวน้ำเครา
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- おたる水族館 — アゴヒゲアザラシChecked: 2026-11-03
- NOAA Fisheries — Bearded sealChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Erignathus barbatusChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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