Range
The northern fur seal is found in the north Pacific – its southernmost reach is a line that runs roughly from the southern tip of Japan to the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. There are estimated to be around 1.1 million northern fur seals across the range, of which roughly half breed on the Pribilof Islands in the east Bering Sea. Another 200–250,000 breed on the Commander Islands in the west Bering Sea, some 100,000 breed on the Tyulen'i Islands off the coast of Sakhalin in the southwest Sea of Okhotsk, and another 60–70,000 in the central Kuril Islands in Russia. Smaller rookeries (around 5,000 animals) are found on Bogoslof Island in the Aleutian Chain and San Miguel Island in the Channel Island group off the coast of California. Recent evidence from stable isotope analysis of Holocene fur seal bone collagen (δ13C and δ15N) indicates prior to the maritime fur trade, it was more common for these animals to breed at local rookeries in British Columbia, California and likely along much of the northwest coast of North America.
During the winter months, northern fur seals display a net movement southward, with animals from Russian rookeries regularly entering Japanese and Korean waters in the Sea of Japan and Alaskan animals moving along the central and eastern Pacific as far as Baja California.
The northern fur seal's range overlaps almost exactly with that of Steller sea lions, with which they occasionally cohabit reproductive rookeries, notably in the Kurils, the Commander Islands and Tyulen'i Islands. The only other fur seal found in the Northern Hemisphere is the Guadalupe fur seal which overlaps slightly with the northern fur seal's range in California.
Read more about this topic: Northern Fur Seal
Famous quotes containing the word range:
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“No doubt, the short distance to which you can see in the woods, and the general twilight, would at length react on the inhabitants, and make them savages. The lakes also reveal the mountains, and give ample scope and range to our thought.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The ideal of the self-sufficient American family is a myth, dangerous because most families, especially affluent families, do in fact make use of a range of services to survive. Families needing one or another kind of help are not morally deficient; most families do need assistance at one time or another.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)