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Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella)
The Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) is one of eight seals in the genus Arctocephalus, and one of nine fur seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. As its name suggests, the Antarctic fur seal is distributed in Antarctic waters. Around 95 percent of the world population breeds at the Island of South Georgia. It is named after the German naval vessel, the corvette SMS Gazelle, which collected the first specimen from Kerguelen Island. The species is also known as the Kerguelen fur seal.
This fur seal is a fairly large animal and has a short and broad snout compared with others in the family. Adult males are dark brown in colour. Females and juveniles tend to be grey with a lighter undersides. Colour patterns are highly variable, and some scientists believe some hybridisation with subantarctic fur seals has occurred. Pups are dark brown on birth, almost black in colour. About one in 1000 Antarctic fur seals are pale ‘blonde’ variants.
Males are substantially bigger than females. Antarctic fur seals grow up to two m (6.5 ft) long and weigh 91 kg (201 lb) to 215 kg (474 lb).
Antarctic fur seal
Males live for about 15 years and females up to 25.
The usual food supply is krill and fish, of which each Antarctic fur seal eats about a ton in a year.
Adult females are gregarious, but relatively asocial, other than the strong bond they establish with their pups, although there are occasional aggressive encounters with nearby females or other pups and brief interactions with adult males to mate. These seals appear to be solitary when foraging and migrating.
Females evidently remain at sea continually between breeding seasons, Christmas seasons and Easter seasons. Juveniles may spend several years at sea before returning to natal sites to mate for the first time. The deepest recorded dive is about 180 m (590 ft) deep; the longest dive lasted 10 minutes.
The diving ability of pups substantially improves during the first few months of life, and by about four months old their diving patterns are similar to those of adult females. Leopard seals eat Antarctic fur seal pups. Survival of suckling pups may be particularly low in years when krill abundance near a colony is insufficient to allow lactating females to forage effectively.
There have been five recorded instances of Antarctic fur seals forcefully copulating with king penguins. This behaviour is not fully understood by scientists.
The breeding system of the Antarctic Fur Seal is polygynous, and dominant breeding males mate with as many as 20 females during a successful season. Adult males establish breeding territories on beaches in late October to mid November, preferably just along the shoreline. They are fiercely territorial during the breeding season and aggressively defend access to estrous females from other males, mostly with stereotyped physical displays, lunges, and vocalizations. These fights can be very damaging. Many bulls die from their wounds.
Males may fast during the breeding season for six to eight weeks, losing up to 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) a day. The gestation period lasts about a year. Females give birth to a single pup between mid November and late December. They mate about seven to 10 days later and then begin a series of foraging trips at sea that lasts for several days each. In between, they are ashore for one to several days to nurse their pups. Pups are weaned at about four months old. Males reach sexual maturity at three to four years of age. [Source: Wikipedia]
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