Imagine being that seal from Deleware, fed up with other seals, that swam all the way up the creek and crossed multiple parking lots to feast on bass and sunfish in the pond all alone just to be moved back to the ocean by "wildlife experts" in the spring :D
For some reason that story made me laugh and smile so much. I think I was just imagining what was going on in the seals head the also the peoples head that say him flopping his way around the dam😂.
There have been Manatees spotted up and down the Mississippi river. Mammals can tolerate the differences from fresh water and salt water better than other species and I can see how being the only seal or manatee in town has it's advantages. Perhaps it just takes a few brave ones to make the trek before local colonies are established.
Right, and West African manatees can be found way up the Niger river. In general, air-breathing aquatic species have fewer hurdles when it comes to salinity differences. For the same reason, aquatic reptiles also tend to be adapted to a wide variety of salinities. The American Crocodile, for instance, can be found in water significantly more salty than the sea (Lago Enriquillo), but also freshwater. When marine mammals struggle in low salinity, bacteria/pathogens are cited as a possible stressor, but bacteria/pathogens are probably reduced in very cold lakes.
I have lived in Louisiana my whole life and we hear about those bull shark and manatees in the river anecdotes. But I've never seen it be reported as actual factual news. Now I have seen reportings of manatees up in the pearl river or Biloxi Bay but that's cuz they're connected to the gulf. I do not believe a manatee would have the strength to swim up the Mississippi. They're remarkably pathetic animals. I bet some humans can swim faster than them
I learned about these seals in a lake bailkal documentary on netflix. After hearing nobody is sure how they got there, I went on google earth and followed the river systems from the lake to the sea. It didn't seem like much of a mystery lol. So I'm glad to see your video with evidence of the seal climbing around the dam.
Minor clarification: According to the Paratethyan hypothesis, the Paratethys only brought seals closer to Lake Baikal indirectly, by allowing for the evolution of the Caspian seal-after which, proglacial lakes would connect Lake Baikal to the Caspian Sea, and seals would only have to make a short trip upriver. Regardless, this is no longer supported by genetic evidence. The later proglacial lake theory emphasized the proglacial lake alone, as it could’ve trapped arctic seals and forced them into both the Caspian and Baikal. But current evidence doesn’t align a proglacial lake with the genetic divergence between the Baikal Seal and other Phoca species.
the Deleware seal had me wheezing, i was imagining it being like salmon - doing acrobatics to jump upstream - but no, it just goes on land and waddles around the obstacle. mammals truly are the funniest class of animal
my theory is that early humans used seals as pillows before pillows were invented, and carried the smaller seals with them inland from the ocean to rest their heads on. this explains why baikal seals are small and chonky :3
They were picked up by prehistoric cryptobros from the continent of Mu for a burgeoning speculator boom on seal backed currency, however Mu exploded because it became too cringe and the seals escaped into the wild.
You do a great job of introducing a fascinating obscure topic and staying factual, interesting and presenting the different theories and their level of credibility.
This theory is the most plausible in my opinion. Ancient rivers makes the most sense to me. A few years ago i saw an otter in a small stream beside my house. This stream runs into a river about 3 miles away. The river is where it’s food source is not in a small stream. Only frogs and tiny stickle back fish to eat there. It’s something I always thought about. how on earth did the seals get there ? Seals are strong animals. I can’t see why they wouldn’t keep going in one direction. Surveys have been done tagging blue sharks off the west coast of Ireland . These very same sharks have been re caught and re tagged in similar surveys in venezuela. It’s amazing the distance some species can travel.
Excellent Video. I was watching a video about a cute seal in Lake Baikal. I was wondering how did it get there. Then I saw your video in the recommendations. Keep it up!
Harbor seals sometimes swim up the Columbia River into the Portland area -- into the Willamette River to WIllamette Falls, and up the Columbia to the Bonneville Dam. More problematically (for fisherman), sea lions often do the same. Although the Columbia is such a large-volume river that a gray whale was once spotted _in Portland,_ in the Columbia.
Love these little guys, they're fascinating. I'm ashamed to say I still believed in the Paratethys hypothesis. I'm glad to have had my knowledge updated.
Excellent work. Many teachers could be using this video to get students interested in several subject areas: earth science, geography, ecology, animal behavior
Just wanted to say that the recent flooding in NYC meant that a sea lion from the Central Park Zoo was able to escape for a little while once its enclosure overflowed. I think it was recaptured, but it goes to show that pinnipeds are mischievous little imps if given the opportunity.
I don’t know if you’ll see this but you are slowly becoming one of my favorite channels! I’m glad I have been brought here. Keep it up, I’m excited to see what you do next! Also hello neighbor (from V
I heard about a seal that was found in a field really far inland in England like I’m talking center of the island. Perhaps it was looking for an inland body of water so it wouldn’t have to compete with anything for food but got lost
If there is a run of migratory fish moving upriver, like salmon, then the seals would quite naturally follow them upstream. Sometimes salmon migrate hundreds of miles upstream to spawn.
Some have wondered if the White River Monster in Arkansas was an elephant seal that somehow made its way not just up the Mississippi River system deep into the continent, but also passed through tropical waters on its way. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_River_Monster
I live in Delaware and that crazy that I don’t remember hearing about that! Amazingly, we also had a manatee found up here, I believe, in either 2015 or 2016 as well!
There was. Seal that escaped captivity in my hometown and swam over 100km downriver to get to Lake St Clair. And then even further into lake Erie. His name was slippery. Also the river he in my hometown is full of rapids, and I think it was dammed at the time
You missed Lake Saimaa ringed seal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saimaa_ringed_seal which is likely cousin of the Lake Ladoga seals. Here the Ice Age is the obvious solution: the area was under the ice and its edge seas still 10 000 years ago.
Considering seals are likely descendants of the same ancestors as bears and weasels, could Lake Baikal not just be a prime example of convergent evolution?
In California, I regularly see sea lions way upstream in the San Joaquin River Delta. They can get all the way up to the Natoma Damn, in Sacramento, over 100 miles inland. If the American River wasn’t damned, I bet there’d be sea lions in Lake Tahoe.
Steller and California sea lions regularly swim all the way up the Columbia River to the Bonneville dam (sometimes even above the dam), to feed on salmon and steelhead concentrated below the dam -- which is 146 miles from the ocean. Coming that far up the river is a new behavior, they definitely didn't do it prior to the dam being built. Harbor seals swim up to the dam as well. One time a gray whale was actually spotted in the Columbia, _in Portland._
I love how NannyTube automatically places the Wikipedia “climate change” blurb under the video even though this video has nothing to do with “climate change”
Sounds like the seal is almost as badass as the eel. I'm sure you could do a great video on eel, lost of interesting geography in their incredible lives
A micro-error, which I point out only because I suspect you would prefer to know: At about 4:50 you say "ancestors" when I believe you should have said "descendants". However, it did nothing to distract from another excellent Casual Earth video.
I wonder why seals were never able to get to the Great Lakes, considering they could have just gone up the St. Lawrence into Ontario. I suppose there are some challenges like Niagara Falls and various rapids but they could have probably made it past those if they wanted
It's thought that harbor seals did in fact inhabit Lake Ontario. However, Niagara Falls is quite a unique barrier between Lake Ontario and the rest of the lakes. Any way around it would have been circuitous.
As someone who lives in close proximity to the Niagara Escarpment that the Falls run over, I find it highly unlikely that an animal with such poor land mobility as a seal would have been able to get over such a massive cliff, especially in a time before roads were created as convenient inclines to scale it.
Is it possible that the warmer climate during the Pliocene could help create even more tundra bogs as snowfall increases and temperatures are too high for glacial formation thus allowing hopping to be done more easily? It can also be possible that caspian and baikal seal have an old lake or sea region or some otehr behavior that isolated it from interbreeding with wild seals in the region or had gone extinct before the new wild seals take over the arctic thus making their divergent genetics artificially old
Sharks in Lake Nicaragua? The story I heard was that the lake was connected to the ocean and (regular) sharks swam into the lake. When the lake was sealed off from the ocean, some sharks were left behind. As the lake became a freshwater lake, the sharks adapted to become the only ones living in fresh (non-saline) water.
I saw a seal once come from a bluff and head down and enter the lake michigan in frankfort wasn't close probally 120 yards but it wasn't hard to tell what I was looking at and to this day I'm 40 now no one believes me when I talk about sucks because I still have zero answers about if seals become vagrant and head into our lakes but why wouldn't they all the stocked trout and salmon I never knew about the seals in quebec until today I think I just finally got my answers thanks for the video
While they have limited mobility, seals arent completely helpless on land like dolphins, whales or manatees. If there's a reliable body of water (and it's within scooting distance) they'll likely go check it out.
Their DESCENDANTS can swim swim and eat without worry … because of the journey of the ancestors, i.e. those who came first/before, the antecedents. Why do so many get this wrong?
Imagine being that seal from Deleware, fed up with other seals, that swam all the way up the creek and crossed multiple parking lots to feast on bass and sunfish in the pond all alone just to be moved back to the ocean by "wildlife experts" in the spring :D
For some reason that story made me laugh and smile so much. I think I was just imagining what was going on in the seals head the also the peoples head that say him flopping his way around the dam😂.
I mean it could just go back I'm sure it's smart enough to remember the route
that seal has the best stories to tell at seal parties for sure.
The seal really needed some "alone time!"
"Wildlife experts"
never do anything right. IMO
I'm going to get "not a bad deal for a humble seal" tattooed on my forehead.
Save money, just get I, for idiot 😅
😂😂😂
Hast du ja eh nicht gemacht
There have been Manatees spotted up and down the Mississippi river. Mammals can tolerate the differences from fresh water and salt water better than other species and I can see how being the only seal or manatee in town has it's advantages. Perhaps it just takes a few brave ones to make the trek before local colonies are established.
Right, and West African manatees can be found way up the Niger river. In general, air-breathing aquatic species have fewer hurdles when it comes to salinity differences. For the same reason, aquatic reptiles also tend to be adapted to a wide variety of salinities. The American Crocodile, for instance, can be found in water significantly more salty than the sea (Lago Enriquillo), but also freshwater. When marine mammals struggle in low salinity, bacteria/pathogens are cited as a possible stressor, but bacteria/pathogens are probably reduced in very cold lakes.
I mean here in Florida you see manatees in rivers all the time up and down the st Johns
Bull sharks have been know to travel thousand miles up a river to hunt, and take humans
I have lived in Louisiana my whole life and we hear about those bull shark and manatees in the river anecdotes. But I've never seen it be reported as actual factual news. Now I have seen reportings of manatees up in the pearl river or Biloxi Bay but that's cuz they're connected to the gulf. I do not believe a manatee would have the strength to swim up the Mississippi. They're remarkably pathetic animals. I bet some humans can swim faster than them
@@myview5840For sure, I think there’s been Bull Shark reported as far up the Mississippi as IL.
I learned about these seals in a lake bailkal documentary on netflix. After hearing nobody is sure how they got there, I went on google earth and followed the river systems from the lake to the sea. It didn't seem like much of a mystery lol. So I'm glad to see your video with evidence of the seal climbing around the dam.
Minor clarification: According to the Paratethyan hypothesis, the Paratethys only brought seals closer to Lake Baikal indirectly, by allowing for the evolution of the Caspian seal-after which, proglacial lakes would connect Lake Baikal to the Caspian Sea, and seals would only have to make a short trip upriver. Regardless, this is no longer supported by genetic evidence. The later proglacial lake theory emphasized the proglacial lake alone, as it could’ve trapped arctic seals and forced them into both the Caspian and Baikal. But current evidence doesn’t align a proglacial lake with the genetic divergence between the Baikal Seal and other Phoca species.
the Deleware seal had me wheezing, i was imagining it being like salmon - doing acrobatics to jump upstream - but no, it just goes on land and waddles around the obstacle. mammals truly are the funniest class of animal
my theory is that early humans used seals as pillows before pillows were invented, and carried the smaller seals with them inland from the ocean to rest their heads on. this explains why baikal seals are small and chonky :3
😂
Good theory
And this year's Nobel prize goes to 🥁🥁🥁 @rj5529 🎉
They were picked up by prehistoric cryptobros from the continent of Mu for a burgeoning speculator boom on seal backed currency, however Mu exploded because it became too cringe and the seals escaped into the wild.
Best theory! You won a seal: 🦭
You do a great job of introducing a fascinating obscure topic and staying factual, interesting and presenting the different theories and their level of credibility.
Best explanation I have heard yet, had no idea there were once seals spotted in Lake Ontario.
This theory is the most plausible in my opinion. Ancient rivers makes the most sense to me. A few years ago i saw an otter in a small stream beside my house. This stream runs into a river about 3 miles away. The river is where it’s food source is not in a small stream. Only frogs and tiny stickle back fish to eat there. It’s something I always thought about. how on earth did the seals get there ? Seals are strong animals. I can’t see why they wouldn’t keep going in one direction. Surveys have been done tagging blue sharks off the west coast of Ireland . These very same sharks have been re caught and re tagged in similar surveys in venezuela. It’s amazing the distance some species can travel.
This channels gonna grow im counting on it, leaving this comment for the algorithm
I knew I subscribed for a reason. This channel is going to blow up, guaranteed.
Really great video man! Can't wait to see more from you and watch this channel grow
Excellent Video. I was watching a video about a cute seal in Lake Baikal. I was wondering how did it get there. Then I saw your video in the recommendations. Keep it up!
Harbor seals sometimes swim up the Columbia River into the Portland area -- into the Willamette River to WIllamette Falls, and up the Columbia to the Bonneville Dam. More problematically (for fisherman), sea lions often do the same.
Although the Columbia is such a large-volume river that a gray whale was once spotted _in Portland,_ in the Columbia.
My love of seals brought me here, and your channel seems awesome!
This is my new favorite channel, thank you!
Love these little guys, they're fascinating.
I'm ashamed to say I still believed in the Paratethys hypothesis. I'm glad to have had my knowledge updated.
Smart Person: *explains how seals got to Lake Baikal*
Everyone else: haha sea potato
You are incorrect. They are a lake sausage. Ha ha...
Excellent work. Many teachers could be using this video to get students interested in several subject areas: earth science, geography, ecology, animal behavior
Yes! Smart little water dogs. I love seals.
I am definitely going to watch all of your videos these are so fascinating and informative
Just wanted to say that the recent flooding in NYC meant that a sea lion from the Central Park Zoo was able to escape for a little while once its enclosure overflowed. I think it was recaptured, but it goes to show that pinnipeds are mischievous little imps if given the opportunity.
4:50 Ancestors? Descendants, surely.
Correct
Love this video!
Great video!
A seal migrated 600m up the Murray River in Australia to the Riverina near Deniliquin.Was shot and mounted in a hotel and still there.
I don’t know if you’ll see this but you are slowly becoming one of my favorite channels! I’m glad I have been brought here. Keep it up, I’m excited to see what you do next! Also hello neighbor (from V
Virginia * ha I sent too early lol
😮The story at 3:40 is bonkers! Great stuff
This is a beautiful video I wish I could go to this place!
I heard about a seal that was found in a field really far inland in England like I’m talking center of the island. Perhaps it was looking for an inland body of water so it wouldn’t have to compete with anything for food but got lost
If there is a run of migratory fish moving upriver, like salmon, then the seals would quite naturally follow them upstream. Sometimes salmon migrate hundreds of miles upstream to spawn.
Some have wondered if the White River Monster in Arkansas was an elephant seal that somehow made its way not just up the Mississippi River system deep into the continent, but also passed through tropical waters on its way.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_River_Monster
You know it's gonna be a good video when there's a climate change disclaimer from RUclips
Seal: "I go where I may find food."
I live in Delaware and that crazy that I don’t remember hearing about that! Amazingly, we also had a manatee found up here, I believe, in either 2015 or 2016 as well!
"Not a bad deal for a humble seal" what a great quote, indeed... Not for my forehead tattoo, but still a cool one to make a sign or plaque whatever.
Brilliant subject and execution, as everything else I've watched from you ! 👏👏👏
There was. Seal that escaped captivity in my hometown and swam over 100km downriver to get to Lake St Clair. And then even further into lake Erie. His name was slippery. Also the river he in my hometown is full of rapids, and I think it was dammed at the time
These videos are so. God. Damn. Good!
What about lake Saimaa in Finland. We have seals in there called Saimaannorppa.
They are subspecies of the north Atlantic and Baltic seal i believe, so is not an exclusively freshwater seal but one that can survive in it.
You missed Lake Saimaa ringed seal en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saimaa_ringed_seal which is likely cousin of the Lake Ladoga seals. Here the Ice Age is the obvious solution: the area was under the ice and its edge seas still 10 000 years ago.
What is YT's climate tag on this video about seals?
Ive always been curious about this as well, but equally curious why only a few places in the world have alligator type crocodilians.
These are really good videos make more please!
Awesome thanks 👍
I recommend all viewers check out the sources listed in the description of the video! These are very helpful!
Considering seals are likely descendants of the same ancestors as bears and weasels, could Lake Baikal not just be a prime example of convergent evolution?
In California, I regularly see sea lions way upstream in the San Joaquin River Delta. They can get all the way up to the Natoma Damn, in Sacramento, over 100 miles inland. If the American River wasn’t damned, I bet there’d be sea lions in Lake Tahoe.
Steller and California sea lions regularly swim all the way up the Columbia River to the Bonneville dam (sometimes even above the dam), to feed on salmon and steelhead concentrated below the dam -- which is 146 miles from the ocean. Coming that far up the river is a new behavior, they definitely didn't do it prior to the dam being built. Harbor seals swim up to the dam as well.
One time a gray whale was actually spotted in the Columbia, _in Portland._
Sea lions aren’t seals
They have my seal of approval!
The title of this video conjures up delightful funny images to mind of a convoy a seals flopping their way across Asia by land.
There is one important thing for seals to populate fresh waters, it is the predator free islands for raising youngs.
I love how NannyTube automatically places the Wikipedia “climate change” blurb under the video even though this video has nothing to do with “climate change”
Love it!
You can't blow a walrus, but you can blow a seal 🌍
I like your video a lot more than the Moth Light Media video.
Sounds like the seal is almost as badass as the eel.
I'm sure you could do a great video on eel, lost of interesting geography in their incredible lives
But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the seal who walks a thousand miles
To settle on the Baikal shore
Correction: *hop* 500 miles
@@avishalom2000lmnope - FLOP 500 miles
Last year I spotted a seal in downtown Sacramento, it had swam all the way up river from the San Francisco bay
Don't forget about the occasional Humpback Whales we get.
Canada used to be teeming with freshwater seals but we clubbed them to death.
Very cool! Intrepid seal explorers.
Just imagine the sight of hundreds or thousands of seals hopping on land
A micro-error, which I point out only because I suspect you would prefer to know: At about 4:50 you say "ancestors" when I believe you should have said "descendants". However, it did nothing to distract from another excellent Casual Earth video.
I wonder why seals were never able to get to the Great Lakes, considering they could have just gone up the St. Lawrence into Ontario. I suppose there are some challenges like Niagara Falls and various rapids but they could have probably made it past those if they wanted
It's thought that harbor seals did in fact inhabit Lake Ontario. However, Niagara Falls is quite a unique barrier between Lake Ontario and the rest of the lakes. Any way around it would have been circuitous.
Seals are too fat and cute to get up the waterfall
As someone who lives in close proximity to the Niagara Escarpment that the Falls run over, I find it highly unlikely that an animal with such poor land mobility as a seal would have been able to get over such a massive cliff, especially in a time before roads were created as convenient inclines to scale it.
@@denpadolt9242 I'm inclined to agree with that
Is it possible that the warmer climate during the Pliocene could help create even more tundra bogs as snowfall increases and temperatures are too high for glacial formation thus allowing hopping to be done more easily?
It can also be possible that caspian and baikal seal have an old lake or sea region or some otehr behavior that isolated it from interbreeding with wild seals in the region or had gone extinct before the new wild seals take over the arctic thus making their divergent genetics artificially old
I am really enjoying your videos! The fact that you are so handsome is just a nice bonus! 😋
Amazon Prime?
Sharks in Lake Nicaragua? The story I heard was that the lake was connected to the ocean and (regular) sharks swam into the lake. When the lake was sealed off from the ocean, some sharks were left behind. As the lake became a freshwater lake, the sharks adapted to become the only ones living in fresh (non-saline) water.
There have been seals in the Hudson River near Albany NY, approximately 100+- miles from the ocean.
Those seals look like good boys basking in the sun
All the pictures of seals make ut look like they're just chilling.
I saw a seal once come from a bluff and head down and enter the lake michigan in frankfort wasn't close probally 120 yards but it wasn't hard to tell what I was looking at and to this day I'm 40 now no one believes me when I talk about sucks because I still have zero answers about if seals become vagrant and head into our lakes but why wouldn't they all the stocked trout and salmon I never knew about the seals in quebec until today I think I just finally got my answers thanks for the video
Maybe it went around Niagara Falls by going through the Welland Canal?
Seals have been seen far into central California during flood seasons.
They smiled at a land friend and were carried there.
While they have limited mobility, seals arent completely helpless on land like dolphins, whales or manatees. If there's a reliable body of water (and it's within scooting distance) they'll likely go check it out.
Goodo watto doggos
Hey you. Yeah you watching the vids about seals in Baikal. I just want you to know...your a nerpa...gotchchya😊
I love seals ❤🦭
Dogs love exploring new places
Wow
Flood_events_B.C. had left the chat
So what you're saying is we should hunt seals to extinction? Got it.
Love these dam little guys..
Water dogs
I'm giving this video the seal of aproval
the lake is very unusual because it is 25-30 million years old. most lakes dry up after about 30,000 years
Unrelated to this video, but please do a video explaining the factors that create the monsoons in India (insert begging emoji here)
It would be very cool if seals colonized the Great Lakes.
I like to imagine the seals have folk tales about Whales and Sharks that are only known of in stories.
Seals are gonna find their way to mars at this point.
❤
It's always "How did seals get to Lake Baikal?", never "How are seals?" :c
I’ve heard whales have in prehistory swam up the Mississippi River. Not weird at all to think seals swam long range down rivers
Ice age, there I saved you 5 minutes from watching this :D
Short answer: seals are people too, don't underestimate them
Soviet Seal
they bounced all the way there. blorp blorp blorp blorp
"Today their ANCESTORS can swim"?????? I don't think that word means what you think it means.
that must have been an error
He meant to say descendants
when nobody was looking i slipped a few seals in that lake
probably the wind blew some seal eggs from the ocean to the lake
Their DESCENDANTS can swim swim and eat without worry … because of the journey of the ancestors, i.e. those who came first/before, the antecedents. Why do so many get this wrong?