Cape fur seal

How it lives

Cape fur seals eat a wide range of food and make feeding trips of about 5 days before returning to the colony. One bull breeds with many females: bulls arrive first and hold territories, and breeding runs from late October to early January, with most pups born in early December. Pups are usually weaned at 10-12 months.

Where it goes

Cape fur seals do not migrate. They leave the colony on feeding trips, usually over the continental shelf within about 80 km of shore, then return. In winter, small numbers follow the sardine run east along South Africa's coast.

We only draw a journey on the map when scientists have tracked it or clearly documented it. For this animal we have not found one yet.

Populations

The Cape subspecies (A. p. pusillus) lives from southern Angola through Namibia to South Africa, in about 40 breeding colonies on islands and the mainland. In the early 1990s it was estimated at about 1.7 million animals aged one year or older, and today about two thirds of the pups are born in Namibia. The Australian fur seal (A. p. doriferus), in south-east Australia, is a separate subspecies. Colony sizes and diet follow local fish stocks.