The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals

CHAPTER VIII.

MARINE CARNIVORA: THE SEALS, SEA-LIONS, AND WALRUS.

are three families 1 of the Sea Carnivora, the Fur-seals, or Eared Seals; the Walrus; and the True or Earless Seal?. The first group, which are called EARED SEALS, and occasionally SEA-LIONS and SEA-BEARS, have a small outer ear, and when on land the hind flippers are folded forwards beneath the body. There is a distinct neck, and on the flippers are rudimentary claws. Some of the eared seals have the close and fine under-fur which makes their capture so re-

Photo Inj G. W. Wilson & Co., Ltd.] [Aberdeen^ munerative. Under the skin STELLER'S SEA-LION; there is often a thick layer The eared seal, or sea-lion, has the hind flippers divided, and is thus able to move with com- of blubber, which is also parative ease on land; turned to commercial uses by the sealers. itself. It is a purely Arctic species, whereas fur-seals are found The WALRUS stands by from Bering Sea to the Antarctic; and forms in some degree a connecting-link between the eared seals and the true seals. Like the former, it tnrns the front flippers forwards and inwards when on land; but it resembles the true seals in having no external ears. The upper canine teeth are developed into enormous tusks of hard ivory.

The COMMON SEALS are the most thoroughly aquatic. The hind flippers seem almost to have coalesced with the tail, and are always directed backwards in line with it. They have no under-fur. On land they can only use the front flippers to aid their progress.

Most seals are marine, though some are found in the land-locked sea of Lake Baikal, in Central Asia, and the true seals often come up rivers.

THE EARED SEALS, OR SEA-LIONS.

These and the walrus have their hind limbs so far free that they can crawl on land and use their flippers for other purposes than swimming; they can comb their hair with them, and walk in an awkward way. They are divided into the fur-seals and hair-seals in the language of trade. The fur-seals are those from which ladies' seal-skin jackets are made; the hair-for the latter to makeseals are sought for their hides and oil. A demand has sprung up coats for automobilists to wear when riding at high speed in cold weather. The "porpoise- " hide boots are really made from the skin of the hair-seal.

Both hair-seals and fur-seals have in common the remarkable habit of assembling in large

Marine Carnivora 137

herds during the breeding-season, and of spending a long period on land after the young are born. The male seals reach the islands, or "rookeries," first, followed by the females. The latter give birth to their young almost as soon as they reach the rocks, and are then seized and gathered into harems by the strongest and oldest males. The sea-lions of Patagonia, equally with the fur-seals of Bering Sea and the Pribyloff Islands, never feed during the whole time which they spend on the rocks, often for a period of two months.

THE FUR-SEALS.

The NORTHERN FUR-SEAL is the only member of this group surviving in any number. These animals still annually resort to the Aleutian Islands, in the territory of Alaska, in great herds to produce their young, and to certain other islets off the coast of Japan. This northern fur-seal, from the fur of which the seal-skin jackets are obtained, is, when full grown, between 6 and 7 feet is grey, thelong. The females are only 4 feet or 4| feet in length. The shoulder of the male is lighter in colour.rest of the body varying between reddish grey and deep black. The female till six years of age, but breed when four years old.Males of this species are not full grown The females produce young at three years of age. The male seals take possession of the females almost immediately after reaching the breeding-grounds, each male collecting as many females is surrounded byas it can round it. The pups keep with their mothers. This assemblage great numbers of young male or bachelor seals, which the old males prevent from annexing any of the females. The greatest of all these gathering-places are on the Pribyloff Islands and certain other islets in Bering Sea. By the end of May both male and female seals swim in flocks through Bering Straits, making for the islands. The islands themselves are leased to American merchants. But as those seals killed on the way are all just about to bring forth young, the waste " or rookeries,"and cruelty of this " pelagic sealing " will be easily understood. On the islands, the males, mothers, and pups remain till August, when the pups take to the water. The male seals have remained for at least two months, incessantly fighting and watching, without taking any food. By that time they are quite exhausted, the fat which they laid up previously being it. The all absorbed. The fur has not naturally either the colour or texture which art gives

Photo by. Cl. II [Aberdeen. SEA-LION. This photograph shows the dry mane of the sea-lion, a rather uncommon sight, as it rarely remains long enough out of the water for its fur to become absolutely dry. 18

of the World138 The Living Animals

outer fur is long and coarse, and only the inner fur of the exquisite texture of the "made" skin. The former is removed, and the latter dyed to the rich brown colour which we see. The fur-seals are steadily diminishing, and each year's catch is smaller than that of the year before.

The CAPE FUR-SEAL, SOUTHERN FUR-SEAL, and NEW

ZEALAND FUR-SEAL are practically extinct for commercial purposes.

THE HAIR-SEALS.

" sea-lions Among these are the large so-called " of Patagonia and the North Pacific. We are familiar with their appearance, because for many years specimens have been kept at the Zoological Gardens. Their habits are much the same as those of the fur-seals. The principal species are, in the north, STELLER'S SEA-LION, and the PATAGOXIAN SEA-LION in the south. Those kept at the Zoological Gardens are usually of the latter species. STELLER'S SEA-LION is already on the road to extinction. When the annual catch of fur-seals reached 100,000 a year, the total number of these northern sea-lions was estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000. They repair every year to the Pribyloff Islands to breed, as the fur-seals do, but are shier and more entirely aquatic. The fur

JJy permission of Professor Jiuntpt York. of the old males is tawny, and makes a kind SEA-LION. of mane OV6r' the shoulders, whence its name, All sea-lions are polygamous. The males guard their harenjs very jealously, and fight determinedly with any Qf gan FrancisCO there is a Small rocky island, one of the ancient " rookeries " of these sea-lions, where they are carefully preserved by the United States Government as one of the sights of the bay. Another favourite haunt in old days was on the Farralone Islands, thirty miles from the bay. Southwards, towards the Antarctic, on the desolate and uninhabited coasts and islets of the Far Southern Ocean, the most characteristic of the fauna still remaining are the sea-lions. Formerly they swarmed in great packs, crowding at the breeding-season the seaweed-covered rocks with their huge and unwieldy forms, and at other times cruising in uncouth and noisy companies in search of the fishes and squids, which they pursued like packs of ocean-wolves. In spring the sea-lions used to struggle on to the flat shore, where the equally aquatic tribes of penguins, which had lost the use of their wings, covered acre after acre of rock with of the first exploring-their eggs and young. These the sea-lions devoured. When the men ships visited the penguins' nurseries, all the ungainly birds began to hop inland, evidently it best to draw them as far from their native elementtaking the men for seals, and thinking as possible. But the eared seals can make good progress of a kind on land. When Captain Musgrave and his crew were cast away for twenty months on the Auckland Islands, they found their tracks on the top of a hill four miles from the water. Captain Musgrave also saw the mother seals teaching their puppies to swim; they were by no means inclined to do this, and were afraid of the water fairly clear presumptive evidence that seals have only recently, so far as natural time is counted, taken to the aquatic life, and modified their form so profoundly as they have. its numbers The PATAGONIAN SEA-LION is perhaps the most numerous species, though

Marine Carnivora

first sea-lion everhave been greatly reduced by whalers in search of skins and oil. The brought to England was one of these. The Zoological Society did not import it; they found it in the possession of a Frenchman called Lecomte, who had taken it on the Patagonian coast, trained it, and brought it home, where he showed it in a caravan. Its training was long and difficult; it bit like a bull-dog, and Lecomte's limbs were scarred all over with its bites. In spite of this it was the cleverest performing animal ever seen up to that time in England. This sea-lion died from swallowing a fish-hook concealed in some fish with which it was fed. Lecomte was then sent out by the Zoological Society to obtain some more. With the greatest difficulty several were secured, but all died on the voyage to New York. Lecornte returned and obtained others, one of which he succeeded in bringing to England. The cleverness of these animals or rather their power of understanding what they are required to do, and their willingness to do it probably exceeds that of any other animal, except the is so is not easy to conjecture, except that the brain iselephant and the dog. Why this more developed. They have been taught to fetch and carry on dry land like a retriever, in addition to the well-known tricks exhibited by those at the Zoo. One belonging to Barnum's Show caught strawberry-punnets on its nose when they were thrown to it, and waved a torch, which it held in its teeth and caught after tossing it into the air.

The sea-lions are much more powerful animals than the fur-seals. The male of Steller's sea-lion attains a length of 10 feet and a weight of 1,000 Ibs. The AUSTRALIAN SEA-LION is even larger than that of the North Pacific. Some specimens are said to attain 12 feet in length. Captain Cook mentions seeing male Patagonian sea-lions 14 feet long and from 8 to 10 feet in circumference. Though none are now seen of such dimensions, skulls found on the beach show that anciently some of the sea-lions were larger than any now known.

It should be noted that all these creatures are carnivorous, yet the supply of food for them never seems to fail, as undoubtedly it would were the animals dependent for their food on land.