Talk:Common Seal

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[edit] rename article Harbor Seal

this article would be best renamed Harbor Seal or Harbour Seal, as this name is more commonly and descriptiively used in the scientific literature as well as typical designation of lay public knowledgeable about pinnipeds. The dual names and redirects should of course be preserved.....hope to hear from others on this matter Anlace 15:01, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Is there a Wikipedia convention about this, because I know Harbor Seal is the most frequently used common name here on the US West Coast, but it might be different elsewhere, and it's difficult to gauge what might be most frequently used for a species with such a wide distribution. - Wevets 15:23, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

It's a region-based difference - Common Seal in the UK and Europe, Harbor Seal in the US, and Harbour Seal in Canada. In cases like this where the species occurs naturally in all three areas, the wiki convention is to stick to the name used by the first major contributor, i.e., Common Seal in this instance. The other alternative is to use the scientific name to avoid disputes, but this would be out of accord with other seal pages. - MPF 10:07, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Harbor seal during the Pleistocene

I'd like to see something about natural predators of the harbor seal like whales, sharks, bears etc., particularly before the late Pleistocene overkill.

Also more history of human hunting would be interesting too. Did Inuit it Greenland hunt them? Did Norsman in Greenland hunt them? (obvously not because there are none left) --Zaurus 20:50, 2006-3-2 (UTC)

[edit] Image

The page is already well-illustrated with images, but if there's ever an expansion, you can use this photo that I just uploaded. --Rkitko 08:58, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] heart rate

The heart article says the harbor seal has a heart rate of 10 when diving and 140 when on land. Is this true? --Gbleem 15:53, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

The heart article doesn't seem to cite a source for that. It is conceiveably true - lots of diving mammals reduce body functions to help conserve oxygen while underwater - but I don't know that it is true in particular.

While diving, seals can also restrict blood flow to their vital organs such as their heart and brain, and can slow their heart rate down to only a few beats per minute.

From p. 423, Waller, Geoffrey (Ed.) SeaLife; A Complete Guide to the Marine Environment, Smithsonian Institution Press. Washington, DC.

Wevets 16:11, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Initial rating and importance

I have established an initial rating of B and importance as "mid" for this article. The "mid" tag is based upon the facts that the species is hardly unique to California, but then we dont have a lot of species of marine mammals that are in the state. the "B" class derives from my assessments as follows:

Usability: Satisfactory NPOV: Satisfactory Writing Quality: Fair Images: Satisfactory References: Satisfactory

Would like to see comments of others. To reach good article status, the page needs more world wide balance; thorough copy edit and change to line note reference system. It could also use some better data on worldwide population trends and ecological threat pathways expanded. Anlace 22:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Gestation/delayed implantation

I am a newcomer to Wiki, but have been observing harbor seals since 1980 and would like to make contributions to this article. These would be both discoveries I have made about individual behavior from my observations and corrections and additions to the text from my reading.

Maybe the best place to start is a detail which I would like to correct. In the article it says that Harbor seals have a gestation period of 11 months. It is actually a bit more elaborate and interesting than that.... they mate immediately after they wean their pups (early to mid June here in Maine). But don't give birth until 10 or 11 months later due to delayed implantation... "the embryo develops for a short period after the egg is fertilized then remains quiescent until it attaches to the uterine wall about 2-3 months later, after which growth resumes" (Guide to Marine Mammals of the World- Pieter Folkens illustrator).

After the pup has been weaned, the mother is often extremely thin, having given over much of her fat reserves to the pup. It would seem important for her to replenish some of her reserves for the next pup and i wonder if delayed implantation isn't a way to ensure she has .... perhaps the next pup doesn't implant if she hasn't.

I have a lot of photographs and population analysis from 15 years of observations in Downeast Maine, but am not sure what would be useful or how to enter them.... also I would like to do it collaboratively so would much appreciate help and advise. I am not even sure where this post will go once I push the save page button. Yeimaya 20:50, 29 December 2006 (UTC)yeimaya

Tewy thanks for your response. I realize that most of what I have to offer IS original research (my observations), but I have done a lot of reading and could go through and add or correct from published material, is that right? One of the main focus of my study is individual identification and I do have a lot of photographs of individual seals I have seen over the last 20 years.... would they be useful or is it more general behaviorial photos that are useful. Maine has a very different seal habitat that Scotland or California, would photos or our haul outs be useful? Yeimaya 22:05, 10 January 2007 (UTC)yeimaya

I'm not an expert on policy, but I can try to help answer some questions. Concerning your research, anything you add has to be verifiable by some external source, so adding a large amount of data that you observed with no references would probably be a bad idea. If you want to publish your research, Wikipedia isn't the place. You can, however, research and cite published sources, as you asked. And you can fix or remove something wrong, as missing information is better than false information [1]. For your images, I recommend getting an account on Commons, and uploading them to there (see this for an explanation). It's probably not best to upload images of each individual, for almost the same reason one shouldn't upload pictures of their pets, although a comparison between two different individuals or how they change over time might be interesting. I would upload your best pictures to begin with. If people like them, and they can be used in articles, I would upload more, but in the meantime it's probably best to start small. --Tewy 00:26, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
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