Harp Seal

Harp Seal
タテゴトアザラシ
Character Data
Romaji		Tategotoazarashi
Debut		Kemono Friends (2015 Game)
Animal Data
Scientific Name		Pagophilus groenlandicus
Distribution		Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean
Diet		Piscivore
Avg. Lifespan		30-35 years
Read More		Harp seal
Conservation

Harp Seal​

Pavilion​

KF3​

Nexon Game​

Gallery

Harp Seal is a type of mammal Friend that debuted in the original Kemono Friends mobile game. She has since been redesigned and has appeared in Kemono Friends Pavilion and Kemono Friends 3.

Appearance

In the old design, Harp Seal has long white hair that fades to light purple, her front hair fades to gray and there are 4 tuffs of gray hair that stick out of the bangs on each side, representing the creature's whiskers. She has thick and short gray eyebrows and blue fluffy accesory around her neck. She has dark grey eyes and a half transparent long skirt that shortens at the front. She has long white gloves with the tips fading into black. Her top clothing is white, starting off with black. She's holding a golden harp with the Japari Park logo.

In the new design she has short white hair with 2 small dots and a larger one on the front side, representing the eyes and snout of the creature, she has 2 tuffs of hair sticking on each side, representing whiskers. She has dark grey eyes and a white fluffy neck accessory. She has white clothing with a ribbon on it. She has a massive skirt that is tied at the back, representing a seal tail and shortens on the front. She wears very long white gloves and dark grey slippers with ribbons around. She plays a dark grey harp with the Japari Park logo and strings that fade from green to blue, to purple, to pink, to orangish red.

Series Appearances

Appearances In Kemono Friends Media

Media		Role
2015	Nexon Game	↪ Playable character
2018	Kemono Friends Pavilion	↪ Observable character
2019	Kemono Friends 3	↪ Playable character

In Real Life

A Harp seal on ice floe. Photo by claumoho, 2008.

The Harp seal, also known as the Saddleback or Greenland seal, is a species of earless seal or phocid, native to the northernmost Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean. In Greek, its scientific name (Pagophilus groenlandicus) translates to "ice-lover from Greenland". Harp seals are about 5 to 6 feet long, weigh about 260 to 300 pounds, and have a robust body with a small, flat head. They have a narrow snout and eight pairs of teeth in both the upper and lower jaws. Their front flippers have thick, strong claws, while their back flippers have smaller, narrower claws. The Harp seal gets its name from a characteristic marking on the back of adult males, an  irregular horseshoe-shaped black stripe across its back. This marking, resembling a harp, connects at the shoulders, curves towards the abdomen, then ascends towards the hind flippers before fading away. These seals spend most of their time near pack ice in coastal ocean waters. On land, they favor rough ice at least a foot in thickness.

Harp seals are polygynous typically lead solitary lives, except during the mating season, when tens of thousands gather together to molt and breed, offering the best chance of reproduction. Male courtship behaviors include pawing gestures, vocalizations, bubble blowing, and pursuit of females across the ice. They also fight for mating opportunities by striking one another with their flippers and biting. Underwater, calling serves as the primary mode of communication across short and long distances, facilitating herd coordination and mate attraction. On land, these creatures utilize trills, clicks, and chirping sounds for similar purposes,  also to attract a mate or in response to a predator coming too near to a pup. Harp seal pups have long, wooly, white fur known as lanugo that lasts until about 3 to 4 weeks old. This white fur helps absorb sunlight and trap heat to keep the pups warm. Pups molt several times during their development.

Though their population trend is increasing and is of least concern (9 million individuals reported by the IUCN Red List), the single largest threat to the harp seal is over-exploitation along with an unregulated and expanding trade in seal products. Other threats are global warming, accidental catches in fishing equipment, oil spills, and other environmental contaminants. Oil development located in the Barents Sea is a future threat. 

Trivia

• The harp used in both of her designs is a reference to the animal's name.
• Immediately after giving birth, mother seals smell their newborn, and from that time on will only feed their own pup, as they remember the scent.
• Harp seals are very strong high-speed swimmers, moving quickly on ice and diving more than 270 m (886 ft).
• Fossils of harp seals show that they were alive during the mid-Miocene, about 20 million years ago.
• Seals wandering off from the herd are called “vagrants” or “vagabonds.”

References

• https://animalia.bio/harp-seal

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harp_seal

• https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/harp-seal