Baikal Seal

Baikal Seal
バイカルアザラシ
Character Data
AKA		Nerpa
Romaji		Baikaruazarashi
Debut		Kemono Friends (2015 Game)
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Pusa sibirica
Distribution		Lake Baikal
Diet		Piscivore
Avg. Lifespan		45 years
Read More		Baikal seal
Conservation

Baikal Seal

Nexon Game

Gallery

Baikal Seal is a type of Pinniped Friend that appeared in the original Kemono Friends mobile game.

Appearance

Baikal Seal has black hair that's gray at the sides and back. It fades into black again at the tips, and there are three stands of white hair behind each side-bang that represents the baikal seal's whiskers. She has a blue towel with the Japari Park logo sitting on her head. She has an athletic shirt, which is white at the front, but black at the sides, back and sleeves. She wears small white gloves. She has black undergarments, partially obscured by a pink cloth with darker spot patterns that is tied around her thigh. She has black thighhigh socks that part at the front of the ankles to reveal the feet, of which the underside of is protected by white sandals. Like all Friends, she has traits of the animal she was generated from. In her case, those are the baikal seal's flippers on her head and its tail. She can be also seen holding a drink with a red label with an orange "No" and symbols on it.

Her original design is radically different from her design. While she keeps the towel, it is lighter, not folded, and lacks the Japari Park symbol. Her clothing is different, with longer gloves and stockings, no sandals, and nearly all of her articles are gray, or a gray that fades into black. Her hair is also different, having a wildly different color scheme, more 'whiskers', and her flippers are also differently colored. The cloth is kept, but is smaller and has a lighter color scheme, and she lacks a drink.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role
2015	Nexon Game	↪ Minor character, playable
2019	Kemono Friends 3: Planet Tours	↪ Photo illustration

In Real Life

The Baikal seal is the world's only known species of seal that resides exclusively in a freshwater region. These relatives of the ringed seal are endemic only to the isolated Lake Baikal in Siberia, and are also classified as one of the smallest species of earless seals. They are theorized to have been isolated from their descendants, the ringed seal, about 500,000 years ago.

Baikal seals are one of the only few seal species capable of producing twins.

Adult seals can grow up to about 1.4 meters or 4 feet and 7 inches in length, and weighs from around 63 to 130 kilograms, or 139 to 290 lbs. They have a larger quantity of blood than ringed seals, allowing them to dive for longer periods of time. The seals' main food source is the golomyanka fish, a species of oilfish also only found in Lake Baikal.

The Baikal seal is a relatively solitary animal. During winter, the seals will maintain a breathing hole above the frozen lake. Breeding season occur in late spring, after which a female seal will enter a nine months-long period of gestation. They are polygamous, and a male can mate with up to three females if given the chance. While the male hunts, the female will dig a large den for their pups to huddle in. The dens usually collapse when spring comes, leaving the pups to fend for themselves.

The only known natural predator of the Baikal seal is the brown bear, but deaths happen rather infrequently. They have also been known to be hunted by the local inhabitants, but only as livestock fodder. As seal hunting is fairly regulated by the Russian government, Baikal seals are not currently endangered of extinction.

Trivia

• Their other name, nerpa, simply means "seal" in Russian.

References

• http://www.conservenature.org/learn_about_wildlife/marine_mammals/baikal_seal.htm

• https://www.pinnipeds.org/seal-information/species-information-pages/the-phocid-seals/baikal-seal