What do you get if you cross a zebra with a seal? There is no sensible answer to that question, of course, but there is a species of seal which lives in the Arctic and subarctic regions of the North Pacific Ocean which could (however unfeasibly) be the product of a chance romance between the two species. It is the Ribbon Seal and it is remarkable for its stripes.
Like many seals, the ribbon seal (
Histriophoca fasciata) has dark brown to black fur. Yet what makes it standout is its remarkable and conspicuous coloration. It has two white stripes and two circles which pattern its body in a particularly striking way. Its genus –
Histriophoca – has a single member: you’re looking at it. The ribbon seal is one of a kind.
