1 / 6

Species of the Day

Species of the Day. The Northern Fur Seal Callorhinus ursinus. Breeding/Mating . Pronounced Sexual Dimorphism Males 2.1 meters long and weigh 175-275 kg Females 1.4 meters long and weigh 30-50 kg Males establish dominance at the rookeries Fight by biting flippers Guard up to 40 females

waldo
Download Presentation

Species of the Day

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Species of the Day The Northern Fur Seal Callorhinus ursinus

  2. Breeding/Mating • Pronounced Sexual Dimorphism • Males 2.1 meters long and weigh 175-275 kg • Females 1.4 meters long and weigh 30-50 kg • Males establish dominance at the rookeries • Fight by biting flippers • Guard up to 40 females • Will lose 20% of body weight while guarding

  3. Interesting Facts • Feed on 50 different fish species (many are commercially important to humans) • Also feed on 10 different cephalopods (squid) • Lactating females eat 1.6 times more than non-lactating females • Thick fur has over 46,000 hairs per square centimeter ( that’s over 225,000 per square inch!) • Hunted for their fur from the 1800s until today. Some of the warmest on the planet.

  4. Known Predators/Problems • Sharks • Killer Whales • Northern Sea Lions • Kill up to 7% of all young • Pollution • 5% of all young become entangled and die in fishing gear every year.

  5. Population Statistics • Over 1.75 million estimated in 1976 • North American Fur Seal Convention protected herds until 1984. • Aleuts allowed to harvest 2000 sub-adult males per year. • With no protection, many fur seals killed by fisherman • Removes competition for fish

  6. Bibliography • Reeves, Randall, Brent Stewart, & Stephen Leatherwood, 1992. The Sierra Club Handbook of Seals and Sirenians. Sierra Club Books, CA. • http://nmml.afsc.noaa.gov/AlaskaEcosystems/nfshome/nfsdescription.htm • http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/bis/marine_mammals/pictures/callorhinus_ursinus.jpg

More Related