Photo: Cute White Coat Harp Seal Baby Pup

Also known as the saddleback seal, the harp seal is probably one of the cutes marine mammals, especially within the first 12 days of life or so when they are all white, that's why some people refer them also as white seal.

I photographed this cute white harp seal on the ice floes of the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Quebec and Prince Edward Island. To me the white harp seal babies (pups) are some of the very cutest animals I ever photographed. It is a lot of fun watching them and to lear about their different behaviors.

Unfortunately it can be a bit dangerous to photograph them too as the ice floes are not always the safest place to walk around. In Canada you can see those cute marine mammals in several places, I had the best encounters along Quebec and Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence but also along the Newfoundland and Labrador coast.

As mentioned above there are several names used for the harp seal, beside saddleback it also often gets referred to its scientific name "Pagophilus groenlandicus" which means "ice lover from Greenland"

This picture is part of the photo album "Animal Pictures" - there are more beautiful images waiting for you.