Reproductive rate and nutritional status of Baltic ringed seals

The Baltic ringed seal (Pusa hispida botnica) population started to increase in numbers in the 1990s after a population decrease caused by hunting and environment pollutants. The annual growth rate of this population is about 5%, while in a fast-growing seal population, it could be as high as 10–12%. The reasons behind the fairly slow population growth rate are not known. In the current study, we investigated reproductive rate and nutritional...