Rare hooded seal from the Arctic spotted in Ostend
A young hooded seal, a species that mainly lives in the Arctic, has been spotted on the beach in Ostend. It’s only the fifth time that a hooded seal has been spotted on the Belgian coast. According to experts, its arrival is another warning that climate change is affecting the Arctic.
Last Thursday, a walker on the beach in Ostend took a photo of a seal, which he posted in a Facebook group the following day. It turned out to be a young hooded seal, a seal species from the Arctic region.
“The hooded seal mainly lives around Greenland and in northern Canada,” Jan Haelters from the Institute of Natural Sciences told VRT NWS. “So the animal was very far from home.”
According to Haelters, it cannot be fully proven that the animal fled because its habitat is under pressure from climate change. “Nevertheless, we can see it, together with the narwhal and the bowhead whale, which washed ashore before, as an ambassador from the Far North, coming to tell us that its habitat is under threat,” he said.
The animal looked healthy in the photos, but to be sure, a veterinarian would have to examine it. In the meantime, however, it has already left and it is unclear where it has gone.
The last sighting of a hooded seal in Belgium was in 2003.
#FlandersNewsService | A hooded seal in Canada © PHOTO IMAGEBROKER
Related news
