What is the status of Ribbon Seals in Captivity? Have there ever been any in captivity, Plans to have one, are there any currently in captivity?
ZooTierreListe records ribbon seal at Lisbon Zoo in 1962-3. Longevity of Mammals in Captivity from the Living Collections of the World (Richard Weigl; 2005) records one at Kamogawa Sea World from 11th May 1972 until 23rd April 1980.
City of Sochi, Aquarium on (river) Matsesta http://www.sochiru.com/item/725 Beautiful animal but not in good conditions...
I have nothing to say... It's by far, the 2nd worst seal enclosure I've ever seen! The very worst was in a travelling circus, which were three trucks arranged in a circle. I'm not kidding when I say that they had one drawer for seals (I don't remember which species) and another for american alligators... Unfortunately, no pictures were taken. Wouldn't surprise me that they didn't allow people to take photos or video...
yes, it is a Ringed Seal. However, this Russian website says that Sochi has "5 species of pinnipeds (walrus, northern fur seal, ribbon seal, ringed seal, Baikal seal)" http://www.wzd.cz/zoo/EU/RU/JU/ru_ju_sochi-mzoo.htm (Checking Zootierliste, it says Sochi has one male, going back to 2011). EDIT: skip through to about 2.20 on the video, which is when the Ribbon Seal comes in. Amazing animal.
Apart for the one at Sochi, there are also Ribbon Seals in Japan (probably not surprisingly). I found specific references for two collections. The JAZA website only lists one holder, the Aquamarine Fukushima. I found the news item from the facility for when they obtained their seal in 2015. There's a photo of the seal on the link. Exhibit News Aquamarine Fukushima The ribbon seal exhibited was an individual that was captured in Hokkaido in June of this year. This species of seal is difficult to raise, and within Japan is currently only raised in aquariums in Hokkaido. As a consequence many details of the mode of life of this species are unknown, and Aquamarine Fukushima undertook to raise a ribbon seal in the interest of research. The individual exhibited is a male ribbon seal, estimated to be one year old. At the time of its arrival it weighed 53.5 kg, but at present its weight is 61 kg. They are also kept at the Otaru Aquarium on Hokkaido (photo on their website - 英語版 | おたる水族館 - and also mentioned on Tripadvisor). The Okhotsk Seal Centre at Monbetsu is a rescue centre which has Ribbon Seals at times, but I don't know about right now. This might be of historical interest too: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.551.6252&rep=rep1&type=pdf
You're absolutely right. I think the ribbon seal is the most attractive pinniped. A few years, I went to the Natural History Museum's storage facility in Wandsworth. The visitors were allowed to touch the stuffed specimens. The specimens I chose included a ribbon seal and a crescent nail-tailed wallaby.
