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The Saimaa ringed seal
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Raising the young
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The newborn seals are covered in grey fur, known also as lanugo, and spend the first few weeks of their lives secure in their lairs, feeding on the nutritious fatty milk of their mothers.
Seal lairs are located under thick snowdrifts on the ice near the shoreline rocks of the lakes. The female seal hollows out a shelter for herself in the snow. In the floor of the shelter she makes a hole in the ice through which she can slip into the lake water below. The seal pups are born at the end of February or in early March. The newborn seals are covered in grey fur, known also as lanugo, and spend the first few weeks of their lives secure in their lairs, feeding on the nutritious fatty milk of their mothers.
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A typical seal lair on a small rock, after the seal and its pup have left. If the weather turns mild or it begins to rain, the roof of the lair can easily collapse. If that happens, the seal has to make a new lair, usually near the first one.
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