Fantastic Antarctic Fur Seal

 The Antarctic Fur Seal is a large, hardy and charismatic inhabitant of the Antarctic region. The Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) is well adapted to the harsh climate of the Southern Ocean and the surrounding sub-Antarctic islands. Like other fur seals, the Antarctic fur seal has an insulating layer of fat, or blubber, to help it cope with the bitterly cold Antarctic temperatures, as well as a dense layer of underfur, which is much denser than that of terrestrial mammals.

Breeding colonies of the Antarctic fur seal are usually located on rocky stretches of beach where there is some protection from the sea. On South Georgia, the inland habitat of the island is comprised mainly of dense tussock grass, and this seal will readily move into these more vegetated areas during the breeding season.

During the winter months the Antarctic fur seal is found mostly at sea, although males and subadults frequently occur along the edge of the pack ice and are known to haul out on sea ice, as well as sandy beaches.

Nearly all species of southern fur seal were massively overexploited during the 18th and 19th centuries because of large scale commercial sealing, which drove the Antarctic fur seal to the brink of extinction. Populations of many other seal species became so depleted they were considered commercially extinct.

Although the Antarctic fur seal has now made a remarkable recovery, it was reduced to just a few, very small, isolated populations in the late 19th century. This caused a severe population ‘bottleneck’, and inbreeding has greatly reduced the genetic diverity of the Antarctic fur seal, making it more vulnerable to environmental change and placing it at increased risk from outbreaks of disease.