Roland Seitre / Blackish cinclodes (Cinclode fuligineux) on beach with Southern Elephant-Seal (Mirounga leonina). This species feeds on dead skin of the seal. Falklands Islands.

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew prepare to paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Pete Oxford / Southern Elephant Seal moulting, East Falkland Islands (Mirounga leonina)

Ashley Cooper / Seal skins hanging up to dry in Ilulissat, Greenland, July 2008.

Ashley Cooper / Inuit women wearing traditional Greenlandic national costume or Kalaallisuut, Ilulissat on Greenland. The costume consists of seal skin boots (Unnaat) bead necklaces (Nuilaqutit) and seal skin trouser...

Jen Guyton / Marketplace in Mbabane selling animal body parts including sea star, the shell of a sea turtle, a snake skin, porcupine quills, a desiccated blowfish, the skin of a hedgehog, a coral, the fur of a spo...

Jen Guyton / Marketplace in Mbabane selling animal body parts including sea star, the shell of a sea turtle, a snake skin, porcupine quills, a desiccated blowfish, the skin of a hedgehog, a coral, the fur of a spo...

Jen Guyton / Marketplace in Mbabane selling animal body parts including sea star, the shell of a sea turtle, a snake skin, porcupine quills, a desiccated blowfish, the skin of a hedgehog, a coral, the fur of a spo...

Jen Guyton / Marketplace in Mbabane selling animal body parts including sea star, the shell of a sea turtle, a snake skin, porcupine quills, a desiccated blowfish, the skin of a hedgehog, a coral, the fur of a spo...

Jen Guyton / Marketplace in Mbabane selling animal body parts including sea star, the shell of a sea turtle, a snake skin, porcupine quills, a desiccated blowfish, the skin of a hedgehog, a coral, the fur of a spo...

Jen Guyton / Marketplace in Mbabane selling animal body parts including sea star, the shell of a sea turtle, a snake skin, porcupine quills, a desiccated blowfish, the skin of a hedgehog, a coral, the fur of a spo...

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,...

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whalers get into their umiak - or bearded seal skin boat - in order to break thin ice forming in the open lead, allowing for passing bowhead whales during spring whaling season. Ch...

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whaler at the front of an umiak - or bearded seal skin boat - spots a whale from the edge of an open lead in the pack ice during spring whaling season. Chukchi Sea, offshore from B...

Steven Kazlowski / Inupiaq subsistence whalers with an umiak - a bearded seal skin boat - wait at the edge of an open lead in the pack ice and look for whales. Chukchi Sea, offshore from Barrow, Arctic coast of Alaska,...

Konrad Wothe / Antarctic Fur Seal (Arctocephalus gazella) molting, South Georgia Island

Kathryn Jeffs / Flipper detail of Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) Antarctica, February, Taken on location for BBC Frozen Planet series

Steven Kazlowski / Young Inupiaq woman processes a Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) caught by subsistence hunters in the Chukchi Sea, in the arctic village of Point Lay, Alaska. The meat and blubber will be eaten and...

Steven Kazlowski / Young Inupiaq woman processes a Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) caught by subsistence hunters in the Chukchi Sea, in the arctic village of Point Lay, Alaska. The meat and blubber will be eaten and...

Kathryn Jeffs / Scientist exanming skin of dead Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) Antarctica. Taken on location for BBC Frozen Planet series, Winter

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Polar bear and seal skins drying outside an Inuit home on Qikiqtarjuaq (Broughton Island), Nunavut, Canada, 2002.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Seal skins drying outside an Inuit home on Qikiqtarjuaq (Broughton Island), Nunavut, Canada, 2002.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Table of traditional North Greenlandic foods: Greenland Halibut, Mattaq (Narwhal skin), eider duck eggs, dried narwhal meat, Arctic char, boiled seal meat & dried polar cod, Thule, Northwest Greenlan...

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Shopkeeper with seal skins at store in Savissivik, Northwest Greenland, 1991.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit woman in hunting hut using ulu (womens knife) to clean seal skin. Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit woman in hunting hut cleaning seal skin. Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit woman sewing wet seal skins onto wooden kayak frame. Qeqertat, Thule, Northwest Greenland, 1977.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit women sewing wet seal skins onto kayak frame. Qeqertat, Northwest Greenland, 1977.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit hunter skinning Ringed seal (Phoca hispida) out on sea ice. Northwest Greenland.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Seal skins hanging on line to dry in Autumn. Moriussaq, Greenland, 1987.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit woman stretching seal skin onto frame to dry. Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit hunter skinning Ringed seal (Phoca hispida). Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit hunter using knife to skin Ringed seal (Phoca hispida). Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit storekeeper trading fox and seal skins. Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / White and blue fox skins, and seal skins, for sale. Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit woman hanging up cleaned seal skin at hunting camp. Northwest Greenland, 1980.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Ajagak, a game made from two pieces of seal bone and skin thong. Qaanaaq, Greenland.

Bryan and Cherry Alexander / Inuit women using an Ulu (traditional Inuit woman's knife) to scrape fat from seal skins. Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada, 1992.

Neil Lucas / Seal fur sleeping bag in interior of Shackleton's Nimrod Hut, frozen in time from the British Antarctic Expedition 1907, Cape Royds, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, November 2008

Sue Flood / Hunter from Greenland in traditional animal skin clothing, including polar bear trousers, creeping up on a sleeping seal, using a traditional hunting technique, near Resolute, Nunavut, Canadian high A...

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq seal skin boat / umiak at the edge of an open lead in the pack ice during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Chukchi Sea, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq seal skin boat / umiak, used for whaling on the pack ice during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Chukchi Sea, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq seal skin boat / umiak at the edge of an open lead in the pack ice during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Chukchi Sea, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew prepare to paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Steven Kazlowski / An Inupiaq whaling crew paddle their seal skin boat / umiak, in an open lead in the Chukchi Sea, during spring whaling season, off the Arctic coastal village of Point Hope, Alaska, May 2008

Bernard Castelein / Wounded grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) (probably by a propeller), Helgoland, Germany

Kerstin Hinze / Group Southern Elephant Seals (Mirounga leonina) resting and moulting, Carcass Island, Falkland Islands, South Atlantic Ocean

TJ Rich / Leopard seal (Hydruga leptonyx) close up of fur and flippers, Antarctica

DOC WHITE / Inuit hunter in kayak with seal skin float, Canadian Arctic

DOC WHITE / Inuit hunter in kayak with seal skin float, Canadian Arctic

DOC WHITE / Inuit hunter in kayak preparing to throw harpoon, with seal skin float behind, Canadian Arctic

Peter Bassett / Dozing bull Elephant seal {Mirounga genus} close-up of nose, South Georgia.

Pete Oxford / Southern elephant seal {Mirounga leonina} moulting on stoney beach, Falkland Islands.

Sue Flood / Inuit women make clothes from seal and caribou skins, Nunavut, Baffin Island, Canadian Arctic

Flip de Nooyer / Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina) close up of molting around eye, South Georgia Island

Michael Hutchinson / Close up of forelimb flipper of Grey seal {Halichoerus grypus} England

Yva Momatiuk & John Eastcott / Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus) cross-section of seal fur shows dense growth of about 300, 000 hairs per square inch, St Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska

Michio Hoshino / Harp Seal (Phoca groenlandicus) pup, Gulf of St Lawrence, Canada

Pete Oxford / Southern elephant seal moulting (Mirounga leonina). East Falkland Island, Antarctica

Pete Oxford / Southern elephant seal {Mirounga leonina} hauled up on beach and moulting Surf bay, East Falkland Island.

Pete Oxford / Southern Elephant seal moulting (Mirounga leonina). East Falkland Island, Antarctica

Jami Tarris / Bearded Seal (Erignathus barbatus) front flipper, Svalbard, Norway

Pete Oxford / Harp seal being butchered for its meat and skin. Southern Greenland

Sue Flood / Inuit child wearing Caribou and Seal skin clothes. Nunavut Canadian arctic June 2000

Doug Allan / Inuk man stuffs dead Little auks (Alle alle) into seal skin bag to prepare kiviak delicacy, Siorapaluk, Greenland, August.

Doug Allan / Inuk man stuffs dead Little auks (Alle alle) into seal skin bag to prepare kiviak delicacy, Siorapaluk, Greenland, August.

Doug Allan / Inuk man stuffs dead Little auks (Alle alle) into seal skin bag to prepare kiviak delicacy, Siorapaluk, Greenland, August.