font settings and languages

Font Size: Large | Normal | Small
Font Face: Verdana | Geneva | Georgia
Languages:

Arctocephalus gazella

(Arctoc?phale De Kerguelen)

Overview

[ Back to top ]

Interesting Facts

[ Back to top ]
 

Common Names

[ Back to top ]

Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Dutch:

Kerguelenzeebeer

Common Names in English:

Antarctic fur seal, Kerguelen fur seal

Common Names in French:

Arctoc?phale De Kerguelen

Description

[ Back to top ]

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 5,013 meters (0 to 16,447 feet).[1]

Ecology: Antarctic Fur Seals are a strongly sexually dimorphic species. Adult males are approximately 1.8 m long and weigh between 130 and 2,000 kg . Adult females are 1.2 - 1.4 m and 22 - 50 kg. Newborns weigh 6 - 7 kg (Laws 1993). Age of first reproduction is 3 years for females (Lunn et al. 1994) and 7 years for males (McCann and Doidge 1987).

Antarctic Fur Seals are highly polygynous . Males arrive at the colonies in late October, some 2-3 weeks before the first females arrive and establish territories. Males continue to arrive and challenge one another for territories through much of the season . Territories are acquired and held by use of vocalizations, threat postures and fighting (Bonner 1968). Females begin to arrive in mid-November and most pupping and breeding occurs from late November to late December. They give birth 1-2 days after arrival at the colony and subsequently attend their pup for 6-7 days. They come into oestrous, mate and then depart shortly afterwards for their first foraging trip of the season (Doidge et al. 1986, Payne 1977). Foraging trip and attendance periods vary by year depending on the availability of the lactating female’s chief prey , adult krill, but generally last 4-5 days at sea followed by 2-3 days attendance on shore (Boyd 1999, Costa et al. 1989, Guinet et al. 2000). Antarctic fur seals undertake short shallow dives, primarily at night (Boyd and Croxall 1992, Costa et al. 2000, Robinson et al. 2002). Mean dive depth and duration increase during the lactation period (Boyd 1999, Costa et al. 1989, Guinet et al. 2000).

Pups are weaned at about four months of age. After the pups are weaned, females are thought to disperse widely and are seldom seen at the colonies before the next breeding season . Breeding bulls also depart the rookery, but subadults and some adult males can be seen at rookeries on South Georgia all year (Bonner 1968, Payne 1977).

The diet of Antarctic Fur Seals varies by season and location. At South Georgia and Bouvet Island Antarctic Fur Seals feed primarily on krill (Bonner 1968, Klages et al. 1998, North et al. 1983). At Heard Island, Macquarie Island and the Prince Edward Islands krill is not available and lactating females prey primarily on cephalopods and fish such as myctophids and notothenids (Green et al. 1989, Green et al. 1991, Klages and Bester 1998, Robinson et al. 2002). Antarctic Fur Seals have also been known to eat penguins at a number of sites (Bonner 1968, Green et al. 1989, Hofmeyr and Bester 1993)

Antarctic Fur Seals are sympatric with other species of fur seals at three sites. Hybridization with Subantarctic Fur Seals occurs at the Prince Edward Islands (Hofmeyr et al. 2006) and the Îles Crozet (Guinet et al. 1994) and with both Subantarctic Fur Seals and New Zealand Fur Seals at Macquarie Island (Goldsworthy et al. 1999).[2].

List of Habitats :

Taxonomy

[ Back to top ]

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Aug-2007

Antarctic Fur Seals were formerly considered a subspecies of Arctocephalus tropicalis and were known as A. t. gazella (Repenning et al. 1971).[2].

Similar Species

[ Back to top ]

Members of the genus Arctocephalus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 12 species and subspecies in this genus:

A. australis (South American Fur Seal) · A. australis australis (Falkland Fur Seal) · A. australis gracilis (South American Fur Seal) · A. forsteri (South Australian Fur Seal) · A. galapagoensis (Gal?pagos Fur Seal) · A. gazella (Kerguelen Fur Seal) · A. philippii (Juan Fern?ndez Fur Seal) · A. pusillus (Afro-Australian Fur Seal) · A. pusillus doriferus (Afro-Australian Fur Seal) · A. pusillus pusillus (Brown Fur Seal) · A. townsendi (Lower Californian Fur Seal) · A. tropicalis (Amsterdam Island Fur Seal)

More Info

[ Back to top ]

Further Reading

[ Back to top ]

Notes

[ Back to top ]

Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 29, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Mean = 814.370 meters (2,671.818 feet), Standard Deviation = 1,159.870 based on 12,775 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
  2. Aurioles, D. & Trillmich, F. 2008. Arctocephalus gazella. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 January 2012. [back]
Last Revised: 2012-07-14