Rare Striped Seal Spotted In Washington State, Rumor Has It Its Mother Might Be A Zebra

A mysterious creature was spotted on Washington state’s Long Beach Peninsula. It was announced to be a ribbon seal. This type of seal is probably the most stylish one on the planet, and it is so rare to spot, the last time it was seen in the region was back in 2012. Interestingly, this pinniped is not only stunning on the outside, but also bizarre on the inside…

Yup, the gorgeous black-and-white seal with four stripes is effortlessly glam and forever in vogue. These seals are born pure white, but start revealing their fancy stripy ‘outfit’ around week five, and it continues to develop until age 4, when they are ready to mate. In fact, some researchers suggest that those stripes help determine the best potential partners, and male ribbon seals are usually ‘better-looking’ than the female ones. Oh, and some of them have an internal air sac scientists can’t explain, which is pretty bizarre.

Ribbon seals are pretty easy going, as there are no natural predators that would bother to hunt them. So they can spend their days enjoying their awesomeness.
The ribbon seal mostly lives in the frigid waters off the southern coast of Russia and to the north of Korea and Japan, so this time it was spotted some 2000 miles from his home. No one knows why the seal travelled so far – maybe it just wanted to astonish us with its fabulousness? If so, he got us.

(h/t: thedodo)