About the Northern Fur Seal

The northern fur seal is an eared seal similar to the sea lion. They have a thick waterproof underfur with over 350,000 hairs per square inch. Their fur appears gray or brown when dry, and black when wet. Females and young males have a lighter colored throat, while mature bulls develop a mane. A full grown male weighs 450 - 600 pounds. The females weigh 90 - 110 pounds. They can roll their hind flippers forward and climb on rocks or run on land.

Each spring around 1.4 million fur seals, over 2/3 of the population worldwide, come to the Pribilof Islands to give birth and breed. Large males arrive in May and early June and aggressively establish their territories. The pregnant females arrive in early to mid-June. They give birth, mate, then nurse their pups for 3 - 4 months. The fur seals leave the Pribilofs in November and December, then will stay 10 -100 miles from shore, rarely touching land again until the next summer. The females and young males swim south to southeast Alaska and as far as the California-Mexico border. Older males stay in the southern Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.