Saimaa ringed seal
species of mammal
The Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa saimensis, Finnish: saimaannorppa) is a species of seal. It is among the most endangered seals in the world, having a total population of only about 500 individuals. The only existing population of these seals is found in Lake Saimaa, Finland. It has lived in complete isolation from other ringed seal populations for around 9,500 years, and have diverged into a morphologically and ecologically different species or subspecies. The population is descended from ringed seals that were separated from the rest when the land rose after the last ice age. This seal, along with the Baikal seal, the Ladoga seal, and the Ungava seal, is one of the few living freshwater seals.
The Saimaa ringed seal was previously considered a subspecies of ringed seal called Pusa hispida saimensis, but in 2025 was classified as its own species after genetic research revealed its closest living relatives being ringed seals from arctic North America, rather than Baltic and Ladogan ringed seals as was previously thought, and having diverged as far back as 60 000 years ago to form its own evolutionary branch.
Distribution
Habitat
The Saimaa ringed seal is endemic to their habitat in Lake Saimaa, Finland. The lake lies between the cities of Lappeenranta in the south and Joensuu in the north, spanning an oval of approximately 180 by 140 km (112 by 87 mi). It consists of numerous larger basins connected by narrower glacier-carved channels, and its geography is maze-like, having 13,710 islands, an approximate coastline length of 14,850 kilometres (9,230 mi), and a surface area of 4,279 km2 (1,652 mi2).
The public source identifies “Saimaa ringed seal” as species of mammal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Saimaa, ringed and seal.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q135437653. The first chronological checks are 2025.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saimaa ringed seal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.