Fast Swimmers: Seals

These cute animals, which most of you know from television and from circuses, spend most of their lives in the water. They are very good swimmers and divers. They are just as happy and comfortable in water and on glaciers as we are on land. Even in spring, the temperature of their habitat remains around –5 degrees Centigrade (23F). While we have to put on clothes and take many precautions, they don't feel cold at all. Because their fur and the fat they store in their body prevent them from being cold.

Seals live in crowded groups. How do you think a mother seal recognises her young in the group? That is easy. After delivery, the mother seal gives her cub a welcome kiss from which she becomes acquainted with the baby's smell and distinguishes it from all other cub seals.

At birth, a kind of oil called the "baby oil" covers the cub's body. Thanks to this oil, the little body always stays warm. This oil is so dense that during the swimming lessons the cub takes from its mother it floats on the surface of water as if wearing a life buoy. That is because this oil is lighter than water. Swimming lessons for the cub take about two weeks. Once it is over, the seal cub becomes entirely self-reliant.

As is in the case of all other animals, seals are also given by Allah features suiting their environment. This is another sign showing us the mercy of our Lord.