Fur seals

Fur seals are eared seals with a thick underfur coat and long front flippers used for swimming. In this app the group includes the New Zealand Fur Seal and the Galapagos Fur Seal.

Look for the visible ear flaps and dense, thick fur, which set this group apart from true seals that have no outer ears. Members are best told apart by size, since males and females of the same species can look very different, and species range from very small to much larger.

Fur seals have visible ear flaps, a dense fur coat, whiskers, and long, muscular limbs. Males are much larger than females, often two to five times their size, with a bigger head, neck, and chest. Size ranges from about 1.5 metres in the male Galapagos fur seal, the smallest of all seals, to 2.5 metres in the male New Zealand fur seal. Pups are born with a black-brown coat that changes to brown after two to three months.

Most fur seals live in cool, temperate, and equatorial waters of the Pacific and Southern Oceans, from southern Australia, Africa, and New Zealand to Peru and California. They mostly stay near isolated islands and coasts and do not migrate long distances, though some individuals wander far from their usual range when food is scarce.

Fur seals gather in large groups on beaches and rocky shores to breed each summer. Males arrive first and fight to hold territory and a group of females, then often stay without leaving to feed until the breeding season ends.

Fur seals are polygynous, meaning one male mates with several females. Pregnancy lasts about 11.5 months in total, and mothers alternate between feeding trips at sea and nursing their pup on shore.

generally harmless (curious underwater; give breeding animals space)

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  Fur Seal

  Arctocephalus pusillus

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  Galapagos fur seal

  Arctocephalus galapagoensis

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  New Zealand fur seal

  Arctocephalus forsteri