Name SealsNonfiction passage (RI.3.1–2; RI.4.1–2)

Seals: Mammals in the Sea

© 2014 International Fund for Animal Welfare. Text and design by The Education Center, LLC www.ifaw.org

When you think of a seal, you most likely think that it is a sea animal. You are right that it lives in the sea. However, some scientists think that millions of years ago, seals’ ancestors lived on land. Why did they move off land into the sea? Maybe there was more food available in the sea. We will never know for sure. But today, seals are mammals in the sea.

Seal Species Seals spend most of their time in water. They come to the surface to breathe. Seals can even sleep for short periods of time underwater. During their sleep, they come to the surface with their eyes closed! This is called bottling. When seals haul out, they come onto land. On land they may rest, give birth, feed their young, or molt their fur. When a seal molts, it sheds its fur and grows a new coat. The scientific name for seals is pinnipeds. Pinnipeds means “fin-footed animals.” The term refers to seals’ webbed feet. There are three main groups of seals. The largest group is true or earless seals. Earless seals actually do have ears, just behind their eyes. The ears are small holes that cannot be seen. The second group is eared seals. These seals have small ear flaps. The final group is walruses. A walrus has features of both groups of seals, plus it has two large tusks.

Threats to Seals Like many other sea animals, seals face many dangers in the sea. Large fishing nets can entangle seals. When a seal gets trapped in a net, it may not survive. Seals are hunted for their skins, also called pelts. Seal hunts are permitted in some countries such as Canada and Namibia. Chemicals, toxic waste, and even litter pollute the oceans. Polluted water harms the seals. Another threat to seals is habitat loss. As coastal land is developed, seals are forced out. Often they cannot find other homes. Lastly, climate change reduces ice floes where some species of seals haul out.

Read.

There are 32 species of seals, includ-ing fur seals (top photo) and harp seals (middle). The largest is the southern elephant seal (bottom photo), which can weigh more than 4,000 pounds!

1. Was this text written to inform, persuade, or entertain? _____________________________________________

How do you know? Use evidence from the text to support your opinion. __________________________

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2. What is the main idea of this text? List five details that support the main idea. _____________________________

_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ 3. According to the text, what is the main difference between true seals and eared

seals? ___________________________________________________________________ 4. If you wanted to learn more about this topic, where could you look? Why?

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5. Of all the threats to seals described in the text, which do you think is the biggest one? Why? ______________________________________________________________

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_________________________________________________________________________ 6. If you could rewrite the title of this text, what would it be? Explain why this is a good

title. _____________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________

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7. In the last paragraph, what does the author mean by habitat loss? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What else would you like to know about seals? Where could you find this information? ______________________________________________________________

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_________________________________________________________________________© 2014 International Fund for Animal Welfare. Text and design by The Education Center, LLC

www.ifaw.org

Name Seals Nonfiction passage (RI.3.1–2; RI.4.1–2)

Harp seal pups are born on the ice and can’t swim until they are several weeks old. They start to learn how to swim by beating the water with their front flippers, leading to the name “beaters.”

Questions

© 2014 International Fund for Animal Welfare. Text and design by The Education Center, LLCwww.ifaw.org

Mammals in the Sea

Answer Key 1. to inform; Reasons may vary. 2. The main idea is that seals are mammals in the sea; details will vary. 3. True seals do not have ear flaps and eared seals have ear flaps. 4. Answers will vary. 5. Answers will vary. 6. Answers will vary. 7. Habitat loss occurs when coastal land is developed and seals are forced out. 8. Answers will vary.