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Steller's Sea Lion
Also called: Sea Lion, Gillespie's Seal.
Images coming soon.
- Length
- 10 feet. (Female 8 feet 6 inches.)
- Description
- Lacks the dense fur of the preceding. Hair, reddish brown inclined to golden in summer, duller and browner in winter.
- Range
- Bering Straits to California.
- Length
- 7 feet.
- Description
- Dark reddish brown in summer. Much lighter in winter, when the upper parts are pale grayish, though still brown beneath and on the limbs. Form much more slender than either of the preceding, with a much longer and more slender snout than the fur seal.
- Range
- Pacific Coast of the United States north to California (San Francisco.)
This animal is a hair seal like the following and lacks the soft velvety underfur of the fur seal. It is the largest of the group, considerably exceeding the fur seal, which in habits it much resembles. Throughout the Bering Sea region it is the only sea lion, but farther south its range overlaps that of Gillespie's hair seal, and in the neighbourhood of San Francisco both occur together and are often confused under the same general name. The present species is, however, much the rarer at this point.
Gillespie's Hair Seal
Zalophus californianus (Lesson)
This is the common sea lion of the California coast and the one generally seen in menageries and zoological gardens. It is the smallest of our eared seals, as well as the most slender and most agile. Its habits resemble those of the other species, and on the islands of the California coast the same battles are waged for the mastery of the harems as are conducted on the Pribilofs by the fur seal. The short, barking cry of the hair seal is familiar to all who have seen these animals in captivity, and is quite different to the prolonged roar of the Steller's sea lion.