What is the name of the white fur seal. Fur seal and man. Reproduction of fur seals

northern fur seal- a representative of the order of pinnipeds, the family of eared seals - a real beast, but perfectly adapted to life in the ocean. However, although he is in the water - in his element, he has not lost contact with the land and spends almost as much time on it a year as in the sea.

Zoologists have identified eight various kinds of these animals, six of which live in the Southern Hemisphere, one - off the coast of California, but we are interested in the eighth - northern fur seal. This is the most numerous, interesting and valuable representative of eared seals. Since the story will only be about him, for brevity we will call him a fur seal, or just a seal.

Here is his portrait. A dense body - like a huge drop - spindle-shaped, beautifully streamlined. A small head with wide-set beautiful dark brown eyes, as if surprised at everything. On the pointed nose is a fan of light, long, stiff whiskers. The auricles are barely visible. And instead of legs - wide, very mobile flippers-oars. With their help, the beast in the water develops a decent speed, but on land they are of little use, and therefore he does not walk, but clumsily and heavily moves in short jumps.

Males and females differ sharply in size: an adult cat weighs one or two centners, up to a quarter of a ton, in exceptional cases 360 kilograms. But their girlfriends are smaller: four to five times lighter.

Fur seals unusually thick, delicate and silky, color from silver-gray to black-brown. It is waterproof, extremely durable and, together with a thick layer of fat, reliably protects the animal's body from hypothermia. After all, water from warm-blooded animals takes away heat 20 times faster than air.

The cat feeds only in water, mainly squid and fish. A meager ration is not peculiar to him. The stomach of an adult male holds 15 - 16 kilograms of food. In especially large animals - billhooks, they found 20 and even 25 kilograms of food eaten in the stomach, but this is already a rarity. Females and young animals are content with less: three or four kilograms is enough for them for a day and even more.

In the water, seals are fast and agile. Zagreb with front fins-oars and wriggling flexible body, it is not a problem for them to develop a speed of 15 - 20 kilometers per hour. Having accelerated, they quickly jump out of the water and fly up to four to five meters in the air. Groups and singly like dolphins. Taking a deep breath, the cat dives into sea ​​depth up to 80 - 100 meters, without appearing on the surface for a good ten minutes.

It costs nothing for such wonderful swimmers to catch fish, squid, octopus. That's why they're so fat. True, not only because there is a lot of food. They also need fat for reliable thermal insulation and buoyancy. Almost all marine animals are known to have a thick layer of fat under their skin - whales, walruses, seals. And the billhook cat also needs an abundant fat reserve for many months of stay on the rookeries.

Cats live in the northern part Pacific Ocean. However, their breeding grounds - rookeries are strictly limited. In addition to the Commander Islands, family life The sealing event takes place on Tyulenye Island near Sakhalin, on several islands in the Kuril chain, and on the US-owned Pribylovy Islands.

Animals arrange rookeries on gently sloping sandy or pebble island beaches, on slippery huge stones, and even on rocks in general. On many oceanic islands, there are a lot of places convenient for seals, and they huddle, crowd, often live in poverty on just a few of them, from year to year sailing to them and to no others. And each exactly to the place where he was born.

Throughout the long winter, fur seals live alone, in groups and in small herds in the ocean, but mainly along the Kuril Islands, Japan and California. They rest and sleep in the same place where they feed, often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers from the earth. They sleep like this: they float up, lie on their side, tuck their hind flippers to the head, which they raise above the water so that it almost touches the hind flippers, a kind of ring is obtained.

By spring, an innate instinct attracts fur seals to each other. Having huddled together in herds, they set off on a long journey to the north, to the realm of cold and fog.

Spreading

Three separate herds of fur seals live in Russia - Commander, Kuril, Sakhalin. In the USA, the largest grouping is located on the Pribilof Islands, which in some years reaches several million individuals. Another species lives in the southern hemisphere - the southern fur seal, whose fur is significantly inferior in quality to its northern counterpart.

Habitat of the northern fur seal

In addition, all types of fur seals are migratory. Typically, migrations take place in a north-south direction within the range of each species. Especially long-distance migrations are made by northern fur seals, from Kamchatka they sail thousands of kilometers to the south and winter in California. Migration is associated with the fact that during the period of breeding fur seals are in colder waters rich in food.

Description of fur seals

The fur seal is not related to cats in any way and is a pinniped mammal, a member of the eared seal family. Its closest relative is . In nature, there are 7-9 species of fur seals, which are combined into two genera - northern(one kind) and southern fur seals (other species).

The fur seal is characterized by a typical appearance most pinnipeds. The body is elongated with a short neck, small head, and flattened limbs - flippers. The tail is short and almost invisible. The fur seal is not as fat as, but moves on the ground using all four limbs. Also, fur seal is distinguished from the seal by the presence of auricles, which is why it is sometimes called an eared seal.

The eyes are dark, large, moist. Vision is poor, myopia is characteristic, hearing and smell are much better developed. Fur seals also have the ability to echolocate. The fur is short, very thick and valuable, brown or almost black. A newborn cub is always jet black, and after the first molt becomes gray. Male and female fur seals are distinguished by their size: males are 4-5 times larger. While their weight reaches 100-250 kg, the weight of females is in the range of 25-40 kg.

Common Types of Fur Seals

Northern fur seal (Far Eastern) (Callorhinus ursinus).

"Classic" representative of fur seals. Males in length reach 2.2 m, weigh up to 320 kg. Females, weighing 70 kg, have a body length of about 1.5 m. Distributed in the North Pacific Ocean to the south of Japan and California.

South American fur seal (Arctocephalus australis)

The body length of males of this species is up to 1.9 m, weight is about 200 kg. Females are 1.40 m long and weigh 50 kg. The fur is light brown in females and black-grey with a mane in males.

The species includes two subspecies: Falkland fur seals(Arctocephalus australis australis), which live in the Falkland Islands and the main subspecies Arctocephalus australis gracilis, a coastal dweller South America. The population today is stable and not in danger of extinction.

New Zealand fur seal (Arctocephalus forsteri)

This species is grey-brown. Males are distinguished by a black mane and body length up to 2.5 m, weight 180 kg. Females reach a length of 1.5 m, weigh up to 70 kg. The species is found on the coasts of New Zealand, in the south and west of Australia, as well as on some subantarctic islands.

Galapagos fur seal (Arctocephalus galapagoensis)

The smallest kind. The body length of males is 1.5 m, weight is up to 64 kg. The body length of females is 1.2 m, weight does not exceed 28 kg. Wool gray-brown. This species is endemic to the Galapagos Islands, where it lives all its life without making migrations.

Kerguelen fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella)

Males of this species reach 1.9 m in length, females - 1.3 m. Weight 150 and 50 kg, respectively. Fur gray-brown. The male is distinguished by the presence of a black mane, with gray or white hairs. Habitat - Antarctica (Islands of South Georgia and South Sandwich, Prince Edward, South Shetland, South Orkney, Bouvet, Kerguelen, Heard and McDonald, Crozet and Macquarie Islands).

Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus)

This species is the largest. The body length of males is 2.5 m, females - 1.8 m. The subspecies Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus is found on the Atlantic coasts of South Africa and Namibia, and can migrate far to the north. The second subspecies Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus lives on small islands in the Bass Strait.

Guadalupe fur seal (Arctocephalus townsendi)

Males are larger than females. The view is painted in dark brown or almost black, with a yellowish back of the neck. The mating season takes place in the east of the island of Guadalupe, which is 200 km west of California.

Subtropical fur seal (Arctocephalus tropicalis)

Medium sized view. The body length of males is up to 2 m, weight is about 160 kg, females are up to 1.4 m in length, weigh about 50 kg. The chest and muzzle are creamy orange, the belly is brownish. The back of males is dark gray or black, females are light gray. The habitat is wide and partially overlaps with the Kerguelen fur seal. Large colonies live on the islands of Gough in the South Atlantic and Amsterdam in the south of the Indian Ocean.

Lifestyle

In spring, adult males (from 7 to 11 years old) are the first to swim into the bays on sandy or rocky shores. Having examined the area from the water, they get out onto land and “reserve themselves a territory where his harem will be for 5-6 months. A little later, females arrive, and their conquest begins. Each male gains from 5 to 20 females in his harem, and a quiet life ends.

Cleaver zealously monitors his "concubines" so that they are not lured by an opponent to his territory. The leader of the harem has a crest on his head, so that everyone knows that I am the owner. Single males, up to 6 years old, live in a separate colony, a little further from the harems. Females, having come out on land, after about two days, give birth to one cub at a time. Sometimes there are two babies, but this is rare. The weight of the newborn is 3 kg, the body length is 50 cm, and he is absolutely all black.

Babies are fed with fatty (up to 70% fat) and nutritious mother's milk. For several weeks, the female does not leave her cub, feeding him. He is gaining strength, and she needs to eat, and she goes fishing at sea, leaving him alone for several days. Since many children are born, they, remaining alone on the shore, form a nursery.

Males do not pay any attention to the little ones, and in the fight for the female, they can crush the cub. And the females, after a short time, after the birth of the cub, mate with the male to next year come back here and give birth to offspring. From this we conclude that the pregnancy lasts about a year.

Growing up, the cubs play with each other, try to reach the water, and even dive into it. No one helps them, they learn everything themselves. In the water, they try to tumble, jump and resist the current. Well, the female, returning from the sea, will easily find her baby and feed him. If the female dies, and she has a cub, then he is also doomed to death. No one will feed him - not a single female will let him near her.

In three months, the puppies will have their first molt, they will change into beautiful light gray fur coats. All summer long, little cubs grow and get stronger, very soon, in the fall, they will have to leave the rookery and go to warm seas. And this path is not easy, if he swallows water during a storm, he will die. In a year, a grown cub reaches a weight of 15 kg.

In late autumn, they all leave their rookeries and swim away to winter in warm waters. From October to April, seals live in the water, fattening, and not leaving the land. These amazing animals will return to land, to their places in the spring. And everything will be repeated from the beginning.

Food

They feed on fish and squid. In search of prey swim tens or even hundreds of kilometers. A meager ration is not peculiar to him. The stomach of an adult male holds 15-16 kilograms of food. In especially large animals - billhooks, 20 and even 25 kilograms of food were found in the stomach, but this is already a rarity. Females and young animals are content with less: three or four kilograms is enough for them for a day and even more.

reproduction

The breeding season occurs in each species in different time most often in the spring. In February-March, the most impatient males come ashore and begin to guard their site of the future haulout from other males. At the beginning of summer, females join them and the fight for them enters the next stage, when males enter into fights, often bloody. The defeated males retreat to another part of the coast and try their hand again. Those who are not lucky enough to defend their right to mate go to the edge of the rookery and humbly wait for the end of summer, when it will be possible to go back to the sea with the whole herd.

Each male can keep a harem of up to 20 females, but few manage to successfully cope with constantly attacking competitors. Usually one adult male takes care of 2-3 females.

fur seal and man

Fur seal hunting began almost immediately after the discovery of the islands. Already in 1745, Emelyan Basov went to the Commander Islands. The trip was successful. 1670 skins of sea otters, 1990 skins of fur seals and 2240 skins of blue foxes were obtained by Basov with his team.

The news of the successful expedition of Emelyan Basov spurred Russian industrialists. Following him, other fur miners also reached out to the Commander Islands.

In the first half of the 18th century, fur seals were of little value. The fur of seals was considered at that time much worse than the fur of other fur-bearing animals. Therefore, the industrialists who visited the islands until 1780 exported an average of no more than 2 thousand seal skins annually. Demand for fur seals appeared after the outstanding Russian navigator, enterprising merchant Grigory Shelekhov managed to organize the mass export of skins to China (wow, even then the Chinese could not do without it). Since 1780, up to 30,000 fur seals have been slaughtered annually on the Commander Islands. No one was spared, even pregnant females. This, of course, was reflected in the number of seals. Their livestock on the Commander Islands began to decline.

In 1799, twenty merchants combined their capital, laying the foundation for the largest association of that time - the Russian-American Company. It has existed for almost 70 years. Its permanent shareholders were the Russian tsars.

Millions of animals savagely destroyed and millions of rubles acquired - such is the result of the activities of the Russian-American Company. Hundreds of thousands of seal skins rotted in warehouses. They were burned and drowned in the sea to maintain high prices.

In 1803 alone, 700,000 seal skins were destroyed. According to contemporaries, in the Unalashka port in 1809-1812 baths and stoves were heated with dried skins of fur seals.

The fishery has grown from year to year. "Fur fever" infected more and more people. The fishermen did not spare either females or fur seal babies. By the beginning of the 70s of the 19th century, 60-70 thousand animals were hunted annually on the Commander Islands. After the sale in 1867 by the tsarist government of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to the United States of America, the activities of the Russian-American Company ceased. Even larger crowds of adventurers poured into the rookeries in the hope of getting rich quickly.

Until now, a commercial species on Commanders since the time of the Russian-American Campaign. In October, “gray” (4-month-old puppies that have grown up over the summer) are slaughtered for fur. From 2 to 7 thousand are slaughtered per year. In adults, the skin is very thick and rough, with many scars. In a word - not very marketable.

The traditional food of the Aleuts was bachelors (this tradition has been preserved on the Pribylov Islands (USA)), now the slaughter of bachelors is prohibited on the Commanders and the locals are content with the peculiar meat of dairy puppies. AT recent times there is a decrease in the limit on the slaughter of a cat. In 2001, 1,500 fur seals were allocated, in previous years up to 7,000 seals were allocated. In November 2002, only 1,000 seals were slaughtered. Scientists attribute this to a decrease in the number of cats.

Video

Sources

http://bering.narod.ru/eng/animals/kotik.htm https://o-prirode.ru/morskoj-kotik/

Niramin - Jan 30th, 2016

Northern fur seals (lat. Callorhinus ursinus) are warm-blooded animals that swim in the ocean along the coast in winter Kuril Islands, Japan and USA. In spring, seals swim north to the rookeries where they were born. These are the northern islands in the Pacific Ocean, owned by Russia and the United States. Fur seals arrange rookeries on rocks and large stones.

Another name for the cat is an eared seal, it has a body in the form of a huge drop of water with a small head and wide-spaced dark brown eyes, a pointed nose with a hard long mustache, small ears are almost invisible. Instead of legs, the seals have wide flippers that help them swim well in the water, but on land they move in clumsy short jumps. Males weigh 300 kg or more, and females are 4-5 times less. The body length of males is up to 2.2 m, and in females - up to 1.4 m.

Fur seals have thick, silky fur that ranges from silver gray to brownish black. Fur and a thick layer of fat keep the body from hypothermia.

In May, males crawl out to rookeries, the strongest of them occupy best places. Later, females join them to bring the offspring. Usually one black, big-headed, goggle-eyed baby is born, which weighs 4-5 kg. Mom is near him all the time, not counting a few days each time she swims into the ocean to find food, feeds her full fat milk and protects him from various dangers. The female feeds only her baby up to 3-4 months, and if the mother dies, then her baby is also doomed to death. Dad is not engaged in education.

From 3-4 weeks, the younger generation, under the supervision of their mothers, begins to learn to swim and dive. At 2 months, baby fluff sheds and the animals are covered with beautiful silver-black fur.

Until late autumn (November-December), fur seals rookery, and then rush to the ocean to feed and stock up on fat until the next season. In the ocean, mother is also inseparable from her child. This continues for up to a year. It weighs up to 15 kg per year and is already completely independent.

At 3-4 years old, young females become adults and are ready for breeding, and males only at 7-8 years old.

Eared seals feed exclusively in the ocean on fish, squid, octopuses. Males eat up to 15 kg of food at a time.

Fur seals live 15-20 years.

See photo gallery of northern fur seal:

Photo: Northern fur seal rookery.

Video: Fur seals

Video: Young Bachelors Play (Northern Seal)

Video: Fur seals anneal

Fur seals belong to the order of pinnipeds and are members of the eared seal family.

Like all pinnipeds, fur seals have an elongated body, short neck, small head, and flipper-shaped limbs. The tail of these mammals, as well as their ears, is almost impossible to notice. But even though the ears of the seals themselves are too small, they still have auricles.

On the head are big eyes, they have a dark tint and are always filled with moisture. The hairline of the animal is very short, but quite thick. Fur color, often brown or black

The size of the animal is not at all small, but males are always much larger than females, about 4 or 5 times. Males weigh from 100 to 250 kilograms, and females from 25 to 40 kilograms.

The entire population of these animals on the planet is divided into Northern fur seals and Southern fur seals. Their habitat is the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, ranging from the Alaska Peninsula in the north to Australia in the south. In addition, one of the species of these animals lives on the coast of the southern part of the African mainland.

The fur seal prefers the coast, while it can be located both on a rocky coast and in gently sloping areas.

Fur seals are herd animals, they gather in huge colonies, and they all settle in one place. Sometimes in places where such a cluster of seals lives, there is literally nowhere for an apple to fall. The shore for these mammals is a place of rest, and hunting takes place in the water. Often, hunting is protracted - up to three days. But this is not a problem for fur seals, because they can even sleep in the water!

These mammals are migratory animals. Their movements are related to breeding, because during the breeding season they need cold waters, in which there is a lot of food they need.

Although fur seals live in a herd, everyone prefers to hunt on their own, they have such a temper! Scientists believe that these representatives of pinnipeds have a fairly high intelligence.

Fur seals prey mainly on fish. Can sometimes be eaten cephalopods. Due to the special streamlining of the body, these animals are quite fast underwater swimmers.

The mating season for animals falls in the spring (in the northern hemisphere it is May, in the southern hemisphere it is November). Male fur seals, with the onset of the mating season, try to immediately designate their territory. They do this with a loud roar.

Octopus is the fur seal's favorite treat.

Males occupying a “high position” and having the largest sizes are located in the center of the rookery. The protection of the territory is very serious and not always friendly: there are also fights between rivals. Around him, the male fur seal gathers something like a harem. He immediately has several females in mind (up to 20 individuals!) After the mating season, pregnancy occurs.

whole year future mom bears offspring, and after childbirth carefully protects the cub, because the “father of the family” behaves absolutely unceremoniously towards small cats: he may simply not notice and crush the baby with his huge body.

The weight of a newborn cat is approximately 2 kilograms. When the babies are 2 months old, they are already beginning to learn to hunt and go into the water. Until that time, mother's milk serves as food for them.

Seals(lat. Arctocephalinae) are marine mammals of the eared seal family. Outwardly, they resemble sea lions, but smaller. There are two genera and nine species of fur seals.

Appearance

Fur seals have a streamlined body shape, a small head on a short neck, large eyes, short hairs on the body. The muzzle is strongly elongated and resembles a dog. Special long hairs grow on the muzzle, called vibrissae, which perform a tactile function underwater, helping the animal to navigate even in muddy water.

Relationship with a person

A serious impact on the size of the population of fur seals was made by man by uncontrolled hunting of this animal. Hunting was carried out because of the valuable fur, as well as meat and fat. In the middle of the 20th century production was limited by annual quotas, and in the late 1990s it was almost completely stopped due to unprofitability.

As of 2017, the number of northern fur seals is estimated at 1.3 million individuals. The number of all southern fur seals exceeds 2 million individuals, but some species, such as the New Zealand species, are less than 30 thousand heads.

At present, a person hunts fur seals mainly for zoos, catching 30-40 young individuals annually.