Who do the seals eat. Fur seal. Photos and videos of fur seals. Zoo life

Female fur seals are very good mothers and bad wives. Careful research by British scientists has shown that female fur seals often cheat on their “husbands” and travel around the colony in search of potential fathers for their cubs.

Seals are polygamous animals. A mature large male keeps a whole harem of females around him in the rookery. In this case, females are guided by two criteria: the chosen one must have good heredity and he must not be a close relative.

Everyone who has ever managed to see a fur seal rookery is amazed by the spectacle that opens. Imagine a stretch of beach (sandy or rocky) of several hundred, sometimes thousands of square meters, almost entirely occupied by the bodies of fur seals. Here and there, huge dark brown males (cleavers), raised their heads up, rise. Around the male is a whole group of females, his harem. The females are much smaller than the male and are colored in light iridescent tones, sometimes very beautiful.

Behind the females are cubs - they are black (specialists who study seals, as they are called - "black"). Males hardly budge, but make fearsome attacks against anyone who dares to come too close. Sounds and smells must be added to this colorful visual image (the latter do not seem pleasant to us at all). Even a short observation of the rookery shows: males run everything here, and in a very tough, despotic manner, while females are destined for the role of absolutely disenfranchised inhabitants of the harem.

However, a detailed study of the behavior of seals shows that many females do not remain faithful to their master at all, but cheat on him with those whom they consider more suitable for the role of fathers of their future offspring. In search of a sexual partner, they even leave their children for a while and move around the rookery, crossing the territories of the harems of other males and experiencing aggression from other people's females (aggression is fully justified - after all, any movement of adult seals around the colony is fraught with crushing the babies). The choice of females turns out to be not accidental - they prefer those males who have better heredity and who are not close relatives.

It turned out that only 23% of females mate with the owner of their harem. The rest go to one or another distance (sometimes up to 35 m, which is quite a lot from the point of view of a seal moving on land, strewn with the bodies of fellow tribesmen) and mate with a male that is not a relative and is highly heterozygous. It is not known what specific signs the female reacts to when making her choice, but apparently it is the appearance and smell.

And this means that in principle there is no single male, "best" for all females. For different females, different males are the “best”.
Now you know more :)

Niramin - Jan 30th, 2016

Northern fur seals (Latin Callorhinus ursinus) are warm-blooded animals that swim in the ocean in winter along the shores of the Kuril Islands, Japan and the United States. In the spring, seals swim north to the rookeries where they were born. These are the northern islands in the Pacific Ocean, owned by Russia and the United States. Seals arrange rookeries on rocks and large stones.

Another name for the cat is an eared seal, it has a body in the form of a huge drop of water with a small head and wide-set dark brown eyes, a pointed nose with a stiff long mustache, small ears are almost invisible. Instead of legs, seals have wide fins that help them swim well in the water, but on land they move awkwardly in short jumps. Males weigh 300 kg or more, while females weigh 4-5 times less. The body length of males is up to 2.2 m, and in females - up to 1.4 m.

Fur seals have thick, silky fur of silvery gray and other shades up to brownish black. Fur and a thick layer of fat keep the body from hypothermia.

In May, males crawl out to rookeries, the strongest of them occupy the best places. Later, the females join them to bring the offspring. Usually one black, big-headed, bug-eyed baby is born, which weighs 4-5 kg. Mom is near him all the time, not counting a few days every time she swims into the ocean to find food, feeds him full of fat milk and protects him from various dangers. The female feeds only her baby up to 3-4 months, and if the mother dies, then her baby is also doomed to death. Dad is not involved in education.

From 3-4 weeks, the young generation, under the supervision of mothers, begins to learn to swim and dive. At 2 months, baby fluff sheds and the animals are covered with beautiful silver-black fur.

Until late autumn (November-December), the seals are in the rookery, and then rush into the ocean to feed themselves and stock up on fat until the next season. In the ocean, mother is also inseparable from the child. This continues for up to a year. It weighs up to 15 kg per year and is already completely independent.

At 3-4 years old, young females become adults and are ready to reproduce, and males only at 7-8 years old.

Eared seals feed exclusively in the ocean on fish, squid, octopus. Males eat up to 15 kg of feed at a time.

Seals live 15-20 years.

See the photo gallery of a Northern fur seal:

Photo: Northern fur seal rookery.

Video: Seals

Video: Young bachelors are played (Northern Seal)

Video: Seals anneal

Despite the name, seals have nothing to do with cats. They are pinnipeds belonging to the family of eared seals. Their closest relatives are animals with another "cat" name -. In total, there are 7-9 species of fur seals (scientists have not yet come to a consensus on how many), which are divided into two genera - northern fur seals (1 species) and Antarctic fur seals (all other species).

Appearance

The appearance of these animals is typical of pinnipeds. They have an elongated body, a relatively short neck, a small head, and their limbs are flattened and turned into flippers. Compared to real seals, they are not so fat and move overland using all four limbs, while seals crawl on their belly dragging their hind legs. The tail of these animals is so short that it is practically invisible. Unlike real seals, fur seals have ears, which is why they got the name eared seals.

The eyes of these animals are large and dark, as if covered with moisture. Seals are quite myopic, although they have well developed hearing and sense of smell. These animals are also capable of echolocation like. The fur of the fur seals, although short, is very thick, therefore it is highly valued. The color of animals is often brown, sometimes almost black. Newborn seals are always pure black; after molting, they wear juvenile (that is, characteristic only of young animals) gray fur. Males and females in fur seals are very different in size: males look more massive due to a thick neck and are 4-5 times larger than females! The weight of males of a large northern fur seal can reach 100-250 kg, while females weigh only 25-40 kg.

Habitat

The entire population of these animals on the planet is divided into Northern fur seals and Southern fur seals. Their habitat is the Pacific Ocean, from the Alaska Peninsula in the north to Australia in the south. In addition, one of the species of these animals lives on the coast of the southern part of the African continent. The fur seal prefers the coast, while it can be located both on a rocky coast and in gentle areas.

Seals are herd animals, they gather in huge colonies, and they all settle in one place. Sometimes in places where such a congestion of cats lives, there is literally nowhere for an apple to fall. The shore for these mammals is a resting place, and the hunt takes place in the water. Often, the hunt is protracted - up to three days. But this is not a problem for fur seals, because they can sleep even in the water!

These mammals are migratory animals. Their movements are associated with the breeding of offspring, because during the breeding season they require cold waters, in which there is a lot of food they need. Although seals live in herds, everyone prefers to hunt on their own, such is their disposition! Scientists believe that these pinnipeds have a fairly high intelligence.

In our country, there are three separate herds of fur seals - Komandorskoe, Kuril, Sakhalin. In the USA, on the Pribylov Islands, the largest group is located, which in some years reaches several million individuals. In the southern hemisphere, another species lives - the southern fur seal, whose fur is significantly inferior in quality to its northern counterpart.

Reproduction

Fur seals appear on rookeries only during the breeding season - from May to the end of November. Some animals, mainly young males, can remain in rookeries during the winter. The bulk of fur seals living within the territorial waters of Russia overwinter in the Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan near the Yamoto Bank and in the Korean Gulf. Observation of tagged animals showed that animals usually adhere to the same breeding sites from year to year, and females come ashore at the same place and at the same stones where they lay earlier.

The first to appear on the shore are the cleavers, which gradually drive out other adult animals from their sites, and then young males. The arrival of females on the Commander Islands begins in May and continues until the end of July. 1-2 days after arrival, a cub is born, after 3 days the female mates and goes to sea to feed. At the same time, the cleavers try their best not to let go of the females of their harem, they often start fights with neighbors in a fit of aggression.

Cubs left without mothers are grouped into “kindergartens”. Females returning after 5-7 days from feeding seek only their puppy, feed him, so that in 2-3 days they can go back to the sea. In the water, seals are fast and agile. Raking up the front paddle-fins and wriggling with a flexible body, it is not a problem for them to reach a speed of 15 - 20 kilometers per hour. Having dispersed, they quickly jump out of the water and fly in the air up to four to five meters. In groups and singly like dolphins. Taking a deep breath, the cat dives into the sea depth up to 80-100 meters, without appearing on the surface for a good ten minutes.

Food

The fur seal eats fish and squid. In search of prey, they swim tens or even hundreds of kilometers. A meager ration is not peculiar to him. The stomach of an adult male holds 15-16 kilograms of food. In especially large animals - cleavers, 20 and even 25 kilograms of food were found in the stomach, but this is already a rarity. Females and young animals are content with less: three or four kilograms are enough for them for a day or even more.

Fur

Fur, with a well-developed undercoat, is of great importance for these seals, in contrast to the sea lions, in which the fur is sparser, and in which fat takes on the main thermal insulation function. The color of the guard hair differs sharply from the color of the underfur, but the underfur is almost completely hidden under the guard hair.

The color of the coat differs in animals of different ages and sex. Newborns have a monochromatic dark color, albinos and chromists are rarely born, but these cases are quite rare, and one hundred thousand newborns have one with a changed color. Since albinism is associated with the manifestation of recessive genes, these puppies have other changes and, in particular, they are practically blind. Probably, such animals are not viable, since not a single meeting of an adult albino has been recorded.

After the first molt (at the age of 3-4 months), the general color background of fur seals acquires a gray tone. Because of this fur, these animals were hunted at one time. Subsequently, the fur of these animals changes differently in males and females. In the adult state, male seals have a darker color; with age, more light (gray) hair appears in the fur of the males. Females retain silvery shades of coat, but their fur turns a little yellow with age.

Fur seals perform a number of important functions, it provides thermal insulation (air is trapped in the undercoat) and takes on a hydrodynamic function. Their subcutaneous fat accumulates in relatively small amounts, which enables them to dive deeply.

Rookery

The fur seal shares most of the rookeries with its relative -. Due to the very similar system of organizing reproduction, competition for space arises between these species. However, there is no intense competition between these species. There are several explanations for this.

Firstly, the beginning of reproduction of sea lions and northern fur seals is shifted in time, the first births in sea lions take place 15-20 days earlier, and therefore, at the peak of reproductive activity of seals, the breeding season of sea lions is almost over and, accordingly, the motivation for competitive relations between males. But at the beginning of the breeding of seals, serious interspecific conflicts can be observed. Taking into account the fact that the difference in the size of sea lions and northern fur seals is significant, it becomes clear that the winners in direct contacts will always be sea lions. On the other hand, the mobility of male fur seals is many times greater than the mobility of male sea lions, and one can often observe how the male seal constantly retreats and walks in circles, gradually exhausting his competitor, the sea lion boar. As a rule, sea lion males get tired of this game very soon. The main reason for this is that by this time the sea lion cleaver had already spent a month on land without food.

The second important reason is the number of animals, there can be up to 4-5 male seals per sea lion boar. The sea lion is simply unable to withstand such a pressure and resigns itself to the presence of seals on its territory. But it should also be borne in mind that intraspecific competition is many times sharper than interspecific competition.

Sexual maturity occurs in males at the age of 3-4 years, however, males become capable of participating in reproduction at 7-8 years of age. And the males reproduce most successfully at the age of 9-11 years, thanks to the best physical and physiological development, which they reach by this age.

Breeding features

For breeding, seals, like all representatives of the family of eared seals, go ashore and form so-called coastal rookeries. The mass exit of males to the rookery and the establishment of territories occurs in late May - early June. At this time, fierce territorial conflicts take place between males, which often cause injury. As the rookeries fill up, territorial conflicts take on more ritualized forms between neighbors, aimed at confirming the established boundaries. In early to mid-June, females begin to approach the rookeries. As a rule, females give birth to puppies in the first days after leaving the rookery.

The breeding system of fur seals is built according to the type of polygyny, and harems are formed on the territory of each male. Unlike sea lions, seals often forcibly keep females in their territory, especially in cases of isolated harems. Often, males steal females from neighbors. This is a rather painful process, since males grab females by the scruff of the neck, flippers or sides and, as a rule, the "owner" of the harem often notices the thief and tries to hold the female by pulling her back. If we imagine a significant difference in the size of females and males, then it is clear that what happens often ends in serious injuries for the females and sometimes leads to death.

The duration of the feeding of puppies by females is short and limited to several months, up to a maximum of 4-5, and on average 3-4 months. During milk feeding, females periodically leave the rookery and go to sea for their own food. For the entire period, females feed the puppies 10-12 times. Here, feeding means the length of the period when the female remains inseparable with the puppy in the rookery for several days.

Pregnancy of females lasts a year, therefore childbirth also occurs during the rutting season. Each female gives birth right in the harem and during the first days she carefully guards the cub, whose weight is only 2 kg. Then the mother is forced to leave the baby to feed in the sea. Cubs remain on the shore and are exposed to many dangers from ... the fathers. The fact is that the formidable bites do not stand on ceremony with their own offspring and can simply crush the kids with their weight or throw them aside. It is during this period that a considerable number of cubs die.

Enemies

The second wave of danger comes after a couple of months, when the young begin to go into the water. Inexperienced animals often fall prey to sharks and. On the Chilean coast, killer whales specially come to the shores at this time to fatten up on easy prey. In pursuit of fur seals, they are even thrown into the surf.

In addition to natural enemies, hunting also brings considerable damage to populations. And to this day, the extraction of seals is carried out on an industrial scale. Only the young are killed (their fur is of the best quality), in addition to the skins, the meat and fat of these animals are also used. However, the main loot is for the fashion industry. Some subspecies of fur seals are critically endangered.

Latin name- Callorhinus ursinus
English name -Northern fur seal
Class- Mammals (Mammalia)
Squad - Pinnipedia (Pinnipedia)
Family- Eared seals (Otariidae)

Conservation status

The species is included in the International Red Book (UICN).
In 1911, a convention was signed between the United States, Great Britain (Canada), Japan and Russia on the prevention of further destruction of seals, which was in effect until 1941. In 1957, a new convention was signed, according to which the sea fishing of seals was prohibited. Currently, the Pribylov Islands have been declared a US government reservation. On the territory of Russia, on the Tyuleny and Komandorskie islands, a reserve regime has been introduced.

View and person

For a long time, fur seals were viewed exclusively as valuable fur game animals, and the history of their fishery is long and not always beautiful. Since the establishment of the Russian-American Company in 1780, the fur seal has taken on an especially large scale. For example, for the period from 1799 to 1867. more than 2.5 million northern fur seals were caught on the islands of the Commander and Pribilovs. By the beginning of the twentieth century, as a result of the predatory hunting of American, Japanese and Russian hunters, the number of these animals decreased to 132 thousand heads in 1910.
Nowadays, a very small number of seals are being hunted, mainly bachelors at the age of 3-4 years.

Spread

The Northern Fur Seal is common in the North Pacific Ocean. The main rookeries are located on the Pribilov Islands in the Bering Sea (US territory), on the Commander Islands and Tyuleniy Island in the Sea of \u200b\u200bOkhotsk. A small population of fur seals lives on the Kuril Islands. In winter, seals keep in the Bering, Okhotsk, Japanese seas and in the northern parts of the Pacific Ocean.

Appearance

Outwardly, northern fur seals are quite comparable with other representatives of the pinniped order. They have a rather powerful streamlined body and limbs that have turned into flippers. Sexual dimorphism is very pronounced: the body length of males is up to 2.1 m, weight is up to 300 kg, of females - up to 1.5 m and 65 kg. In general, males look much more massive than females, mainly because of the powerful neck and powerful chest. The fins of the cats are very long and hairless, and they have a fairly large number of sweat glands. The claws on the front flippers are almost invisible or absent at all. The muzzle is shortened, pointed, the eyes are widely spaced. The external auricles are small, no longer than 5 cm.
Fur of seals consists of guard and down (undercoat) hair. Their hair grows in bundles: 1 guard hair, 2-3 intermediate and 10-30 down. In fur seals, this dense underfur plays a major role in the process of thermoregulation in water. The color of the coat differs depending on the age and sex of the animals. Newborn cubs have a solid dark color. After the first molt at the age of 3-4 months, the color of the fur becomes silvery-gray (it was because of this fur that seals were hunted earlier). After the next molts, the fur of animals changes differently. Males are darker in color, and with age, more light (gray) hair appears in their coat. The coat of females retains a silvery hue throughout their life and only slightly yellows with age.
Due to the fact that seals spend part of their life on land, part in water and even under water, their eyes must see in all these areas of habitation. The eyes of seals are large, and their internal structure indicates the possible presence of binocular vision. The visual acuity of seals is at a fairly high level, both in water and on land.
The good sense of smell of fur seals "works" mainly only on land. By smell, males determine the boundaries of their territory and the mating state of females. By smell, females find their place in the rookery and their cub.
Hearing is well developed in fur seals, while they hear equally well both on land and in water. The morphological structure of the middle and inner ear shows that seals can perceive a wide range of sounds, including ultrasounds.
Tactile sensations are very important for seals, especially in rookeries. Despite being very crowded, they usually avoid direct bodily contact with each other. Tactile sensitivity is carried out by skin receptors and special sensitive vibrissae hairs located throughout the body. There are especially many of them on the face, where vibrissae form a thick "mustache". On the upper lip of the seals, there are 22–23 pieces on each side. Approaching each other, the animals not only sniff, but also "bristle their whiskers" for tactile sensations.

Northern fur seal

Northern fur seal

Northern fur seal

Lifestyle and social organization

Like all pinnipeds, seals swim and dive great, but are helpless enough on land. Moving in the water, the cat flies, as it were, flapping its large front flippers like wings. In case of danger, he can reach speeds of up to 15-17 km / h, but usually swims at a speed of 9-11 km / h. The rear fins serve as a rudder and balance bar when swimming. Seals can dive quite deep, to a depth of 100 m, but usually they stay in the surface layer of water with a thickness of 10 to 20 m.
Seals are active mainly at night, in the evening and early in the morning. In the daytime, they usually sleep, and they do it both on land and on water. While sleeping on the water (and this happens mainly in winter, when seals lead a pelagic lifestyle), they lie on their side, one front fin is immersed in the water, and the other 3 are raised by a house over their heads to keep warm. With a fin immersed in water, the sleeping cat rakes lightly all the time, maintaining the desired position of the body in the water.
The social life of fur seals is sharply divided into 2 periods - summer (rookery) and winter (pelagic).
In summer, seals live in rookeries among the mass of their relatives, in close contact with each other, and in winter, in the sea, they stay alone or in small groups, practically not communicating with each other.
In the spring, in May, adult male cleavers are the first to arrive at rookeries located on islands with pebble or sandy beaches remote from the mainland. They come ashore and occupy selected suitable areas. This process is by no means peaceful, there are constant clashes between males and even serious fights for the possession of a certain territory.
In June, females begin to approach the rookeries. Males meet them and try to escort them to their site. Usually females strive to choose the same place where they lived in the previous year. Gradually, a group of females is formed around each male, the so-called harem. In each harem there can be 20-30, or even 50 females. Gradually expanding harems are almost connected to each other, forming a noisy numerous rookery. Female fur seals are also constantly in conflict with each other. Therefore, there is a constant noise at the rookery from neighbors who are angrily "talking" among themselves.
Some time after the birth of the young, so-called "kindergartens" are formed at the rookery, where young people from all over the rookeries gather while their mothers go to sea to feed.
Young male fur seals form their own separate bachelor rookeries. Life here is much calmer than in the "adult" rookeries. Bachelors, although they arrange "demonstration" fights, never bite or injure each other. These skirmishes prepare young males for further "adult" life.
After the end of the active breeding period, the seals remain in the rookery for another 2–2.5 months, rest and molt. All conflicts between them cease. In October, with the onset of cold weather, seals leave their rookeries in the sea, first young, then adult animals. Further, they lead a sea, wandering life of lonely animals.

Feeding and feeding behavior

Seals feed on about 60 species of marine animals, mainly fish, cephalopods and crustaceans. The daily food requirement of the northern fur seal is about 7% of its weight. The main feeding season is from autumn to late spring. During the breeding season, sexually mature males with harems do not feed at all. At different points of the range, the species composition of the prey of fur seals is somewhat different.

Vocalization

The sounds made by seals are very diverse, and they are the most "talkative" during their stay at rookeries on land. Males, demonstrating the occupation of the territory and threatening their rivals, emit a powerful vibrating roar, reminiscent of the loud siren of a steamer. With regular patrolling of their possessions, males make specific, unusually high for such large animals, clicking sounds.
Female seals also communicate with each other. Their rather loud and aggressive "boating" is constantly heard in the rookeries, especially when trying to violate individual territories. The female communicates with the cub with special quiet gentle shouts, and, looking for her cub in the rookery, publishes a loud bleating. The cub, in turn, calls on the mother, who returned to the rookery after feeding, with a loud bleating too. It is by the voice (and by the smell) that the females find their cubs in the rookery.

Reproduction and maternal behavior

Female fur seals give birth to a single calf in the very first days after leaving the rookery. A newborn is 55–65 cm long and weighs about 5 kg. Already a few days after giving birth, a new mating begins. By smell, the male determines the female's readiness for mating and actively looks after her, however, for a very short time, no more than a day. But in a harem there can be up to 50 females! Thus, the pregnancy of female fur seals lasts about a year, but given the presence of a latency period of 3.5–4 months, the actual development of the calf lasts about 8 months.
For the first 10 days after giving birth, the mother is constantly with the calf. She feeds him and vigilantly protects him from real and sometimes imaginary dangers, for example, from the encroachments of neighboring females. After 10 days, it leaves the calf for the first time and goes to sea to feed. Her absence usually lasts a week or more. Returning females, by smell and voice, find exactly their cub. All other babies (they are also called "black" for the color of the skin), who come to her voice, the female drives away with a threatening pose and sounds. Female seals almost never accept other people's children, and the puppy left for one reason or another without a mother is doomed to death. After about a week, the females again go to sea for feeding. But, despite these, rather short-term, periods of milk feeding, the cubs quickly grow and get stronger, since the cat's milk is very fatty.
During the absence of females, the "black ones" gather on the shore in numerous "kindergartens". At the age of one month, they are no longer afraid of cold water and begin to learn to swim and dive.
Females feed their cubs until the autumn final departure to the sea, when they are about 4 months old.
Females of fur seals become sexually mature at 3-4 years of age and retain the ability to reproduce until 21 years of age. Males reach sexual maturity at the age of 5, but they become owners of harems no earlier than at the age of 7–12.

Life span

The life span of northern fur seals is about 30 years. However, very few animals survive until these years in nature. A large number of seals die in the first 2 years of life and especially in the first winter, when they are forced to switch to independent feeding. Fur seals have few natural enemies; these are probably killer whales and some species of sharks.

Zoo life

In the Moscow Zoo, northern fur seals live in the Old Territory in one of the enclosures of the Pinnipeds complex. They can be seen not only from above, but also under water through large thick glasses. Often animals specially swim up to people to communicate. When a cat lies on the water, not moving, and sleeps peacefully, this often frightens vigilant visitors, who believe that the animal is dead.
They feed the seals in the zoo with fish and squid. In summer, they receive from 4 (females) to 5-6 kg (males) food per day, and in winter, the diet increases by 50%, since the animals are kept outdoors all year round.

For the first time, seals bred here in July 2015 - a female Yushka and a male Pirate gave birth to a baby Flint.

Scientists have found that seals, unlike other mammals, are able to skip REM sleep. In water, seals are able to sleep with only one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, only slow-wave sleep is observed in it. If it is land, then the indicators are almost indistinguishable from other mammals. We publish more 8 incredible facts about fur seals

1. Female fur seals - very good mothers, they can easily recognize their children by their voice and smell. Thanks to these signs, they are able to recognize each other even after years of separation. Having given birth to the first child, the female continues to be in a state of lactation throughout her life.

2. Despite the fact that female fur seals have a developed kind of maternal instinct, they are bad wives, careful research by British scientists has shown that female seals often cheat on their "husbands". They do not at all remain faithful to their master, but cheat on him with those whom they consider more suitable for the role of fathers of their future descendants.

3. The male is not far from the female, he keeps around him in the rookery a whole harem of females... In this case, females are guided by two criteria: the chosen one must have good heredity and he must not be a close relative.

4. In addition to the fact that the male is not the best husband, he is also bad dad... You cannot call caring fathers of cleavers. When the female is about to go to sea, the male can calmly throw away his own cub if he meets the cleaver on the way. Or maybe just lie down on the baby.

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