FUR SEAL

any of several eared seals of the family Otariidae valued for the quality of their fur. The northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) is a migratory inhabitant of northern seas, breeding in summer on the Pribilof, Komandor (Commander), and other islands. Prized for its chestnut-coloured underfur, it is a gregarious, vocal animal that feeds on fish and other marine animals. The adult male is deep brown in colour with a grayish mane and grows to about 3.1 m (10 feet) in length and 300 kg (660 pounds) in weight; the female is dark gray and grows to about 1.5 m (5 feet) and 60 kg (132 pounds). In 1911, after more than a century of extensive slaughter, the northern fur seal was placed under protection. With management, the depleted herds increased to the point that more than 60,000 animals could be taken annually during the 1960s. In the 1970s that number was reduced by nearly half, and in 1980 only about 24,000 were taken. The eight species of southern fur seals (Arctocephalus) are distributed in the Southern Hemisphere, except for a herd of Guadalupe fur seals (A. townsendi) on Guadalupe Island off the northwest coast of Baja California. Southern fur seals are gray to brown or black in colour with chestnut-coloured underfur. Length averages about 1.21.8 m (46 feet), but the South African, or Cape, fur seal (A. pusillus) and the Australian fur seal (A. pusillus doriferus) grow to lengths and weights of about 2.5 m (8 feet) and 300 kg in the male, 1.8 m and 120 kg (265 pounds) in the female. Like the northern form, southern fur seals are gregarious and carnivorous. By the late 1970s about 14,000 South American (A. australis) fur seals were being harvested annually. Other species, including the once-numerous New Zealand fur seal (A. forsteri), the Galpagos fur seal (A. galapagoensis), and the Juan Fernandez fur seal (A. philippii), all of which were hunted nearly to the point of extinction, have been protected by law. The harp seal is a fur-bearing northern seal of a different family (Phocidae).