In Irkutsk there’s a pool of Baikal seal. There live and learn funny and cute pinniped guys. 
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The seal – is a live symbol of Baikal. It is one of its most beautiful inhabitants and the only species living in a lake. The Baikal seal is one of three limnetic seal species in the world, endemic of Baikal and it lives nowhere else. Looking for food, these seals dive 200 m deep and stay underwater for 20-25 minutes. They give birth to calves on the ice or in a snow lie. Most of the calves are born in the middle of March. In the first weeks of their life they have white fur that allows them to be almost invisible in snow. Adult mails achieve 130-150 kg and their length may be up to 1.8m, females are smaller.  The life span of the seals is 55-56 years at most. It is hard to see seals in the natural habitat due to their reticence and fearfulness.

In the Baikal region there are three seal pools. This one is in Irkutsk. These are not simply seals, these are students, artists, pets… Here they are loved, cared of and taught. Trained seals give some performances a day. Among the visitors of the pool are not only children but adults as well. The main artists are a male Tito and a female Nessy. They sing, kiss, dance waltz and break, play with a ball and count to 5. They can save the drowning as well.

This is Tito, a great expert. He is a real male – courteous, strong and energetic. He’s a talented musician and an artist. Tito paints pictures with gouache on Whatman paper. Such a picture may be bought at an action held during the performance.

Each picture comes with a certificate confirming its authenticity.

He even plays the saxophone.

Tito jumps here like a dolphin, usually seals do not do it in the natural habitat, but Tito has been taught to do it.

For each holiday the seals are taught a new program. For example in the New Year’s program they decorated a X-mas tree hung over the pool, and on the St. Valentine’s day Tito gave a bunch of flowers to Nessy.

Kissing.

With help of webbing in the nose they sing, the sound is very funny.

In fact it’s harder to train these seals than other ones because these species are loners.  Seals are independent, do not live in a band and do not have constant partners.

On this picture seals are in their natural habitat.

via http://www.yaplakal.com