Antarctic Fur Seal

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Antarctic fur seals are the fastest growing type of seal. They are have evolved specially just for their environment and because of that they have The annual mortality rate of territorial males is approximately 38% (mostly due to fighting and fasting during the breeding season), and the maximum life expectancy of a breeding male is 17 years old and for breeding females the life expectancy is 26 years old. Males are usually the more aggressive gender so they have a lower life expectancy than females

They're cool cause they've got 4 different hunting patterns; between daytime and dusk, they hunt for small periods of time, usually 15-20 minutes. At night they go hunting for a while- often around 80 minutes. Sometimes they'll take 20 minutes to hunt near the surface is food is scarce. At dawn, however, they go really deep- past 50 meters, for around 20 minutes.

Antarctic fur seals eat squid, fish, krill and penguins and it’s predators include the killer whale and the polar bear. Our animal is a specialist. Our animal can only survive in a narrow range of environmental conditions and has a limited diet. Antarctic Fur seals only live in sub-polar and temperate waters, and are nonmigratory. Fur seals mainly only eat moderately sized fish, birds(including penguins, surprisingly), squid and krill, which is mostly only available in the areas they live in. These guys are specialists. Our animal can only survive in a narrow range of environmental conditions and has a limited diet.

Wanna hear some boring science facts, that are actually pretty cool? Fur seals are members of the Arctocephalinae subfamily, which are more closely related to sea lions than other seals. They are different from normal seals in that they have a very thick layer of fur used to trap air and keep them warm in the cold conditions they live in. These fur seals live throughout the world, some living up north in Alaska or eastern Russia, and others living far down south. Fur seals living in different regions have many different features. Fur seals can range in size from 1.5m and 64kg in the Galapagos to 2.5m and 180kg in New Zealand. In South America, females have a lighter coat than males, especially on the chest. Northern fur seal females are silvery on their dorsal side and reddish- brown on the ventral side, which makes them easily distinguished from the males, which are all brown or all black. Pretty cool, eh?

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