One of the 7 fur seals on WAnimals
Mammals · Carnivora · Otariidae
Juan Fernandez Fur Seal
Arctocephalus philippii
Least Concern
The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk.
Arctocephalus philippii is the Juan Fernández fur seal, an eared seal endemic to the oceanic islands of Chile. The sealers of the 18th and 19th centuries killed several million animals for their pelts and it was given up for extinct for decades. A small surviving colony was rediscovered in 1965 and the population has been recovering slowly ever since. It dives deep at night to hunt squid and mesopelagic fish, and breeds in caves and rocky ground that are hard to reach.
Weight
50 kg – 140 kg
Size
1.4 m – 2 m
Life expectancy
20 years
