'I realised that seals are no worse than dolphins. Maybe they are even smarter'. Picture: Rossiya One, Vesti Irkutsk

While elsewhere in Russia dolphins and seals have been trained for real-life military activities, this is more of a show.

The seals, called Winnie the Pooh and Laska, march with toy guns wearing military hats for a performance linked to Victory Day on 9 May. They dive through obstacles with the plastic knives in their mouths, hoist a flag and shoot with water guns.

Baikal seals were earlier trained to do tricks like playing with a ball, jumping through hoops, drawing, singing and dancing.

Evgeniy Baranov, founder of the world's first seal circus, said: 'The new show is a logical development of the tricks that our seals learned earlier. With every rehearsal they get better and better.'



Seals called Winnie the Pooh and Laska in Irkutsk aquarium. Pictures: Rossiya One, Vesti Irkutsk

The seals live in a special aquarium cooled to 2-to-3 degrees Celsius, as in Lake Baikal, the deepest in the world. They are fed with the same food as their wild, namely Baikal oil fish and goby fish.

'I have been working with Baikal seals for over 25 years,' said Mr Baranov. 'For some time I worked in a laboratory, almost 24/7. There were seals living there, and I looked after them, observing their traits.

'I started training and handling them. It wasn't too long before I realised that seals are no worse than dolphins. Maybe they are even smarter.

'Seals can solve logical, technical puzzles'.