Doug Perrine / Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) fur peels off a seal as it undergoes its annual moult, termed a catastrophic moult, because a layer of skin comes off with the fur and intense hormonal...

Doug Perrine / Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) fur peels off a seal as it undergoes its annual moult, termed a catastrophic moult, because a layer of skin comes off with the fur and intense hormonal...

Doug Perrine / Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) fur peels off a seal as it undergoes its annual moult, termed a catastrophic moult, because a layer of skin comes off with the fur and intense hormonal...

Brent Stephenson / Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) pup with moulting skin around the face, Fortuna Bay, South Georgia, South Atlantic, January.

Ingo Arndt / Harp Seal (Phoca groenlandicus) pup fur, Magdalen Islands, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Quebec, Canada

Doug Perrine / Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi) resting on beach while shedding skin and fur during annual molt or moult, Black-footed albatrosses, (Phoebastria nigripes) in background, East Island, Fre...

Heidi & Hans-Juergen Koch / Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida) coat, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

Mark Carwardine / Southern elephant seal moulting {Mirounga leonina} Falkland Is

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whalers paddle their umiak, or bearded seal skin boat, to find passing bowhead whales traveling through the open lead, during spring whaling season. Chukchi Sea, offshore from Barr...

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whalers bring their umiak - bearded seal skin boat - back onto the edge of an open lead in the pack ice, during spring whaling season. Chukchi Sea, offshore from Barrow, Arctic coa...

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whalers in their umiak - bearded seal skin boat - watch a polar bear (Ursus maritimus) sow and cub travel along the edge of the open lead in the pack ice, during spring whaling sea...

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whalers paddle their umiak - or bearded seal skin boat - and break thin ice forming in the open lead, allowing for passing bowhead whales during spring whaling season. Chukchi Sea,...