THE SOUTHERN SEA LION 311 



in among the high tussocks (tussac bogs, in local speech) in order to sleep in shelter, 

 and they often climb on top of the plants for the purpose. 



Tussac grass grows mostly on the smaller islands where the ground is soft and peaty ; 

 but where the sea lions travel through and lie about on it, the ground becomes much 

 hardened and is often worn so smooth that it is slippery in wet weather. The plants 

 on which the animals rest are flattened out, while the vegetation is almost completely 

 killed off if the sea lions are sufficiently numerous (Plate VI, fig. 2 ; Plate VII, fig. i). 



In the Falklands tussac grass is much used as food for horses and cattle, either as 

 green forage or as pasture ; it is commonly stated that domestic animals will not eat 

 tussac with which sea lions have been in contact on account of the smell of them and 

 their excrement, and there is no reason at all to doubt that this is so. On the other 

 hand the sea lions definitely improve the ground on which the tussac grows by hardening 

 it in the manner described above, by keeping down the dense tangle of dead leaves 

 between the "bogs" and by fertilizing the ground. 



The evidence points to this, that the presence of a small or even a moderate number 

 of sea lions is beneficial to tussac, but the presence of a large number is detrimental, 

 because the grass will be destroyed. 



On the main islands the sea lion comes inland at a few places where there is no 

 tussac, but the amount of pasture destroyed is absolutely negligible. In some localities 

 the effect is definitely beneficial, through the destruction of the uneatable flora and the 

 fertilization of the soil, which eventually results in the growth of grass in place of the 

 other plants. 



The damage done to the tussac is insignificant compared with the total area on 

 which the plant grows luxuriously, and much of this area is almost or quite inaccessible 

 for pastoral purposes. The complaints which have been made are based on the presence 

 of more or less numerous sea lions on islands which are convenient for grazing or 

 cutting, or on land which has been artificially planted. Some of these complaints were 

 justified and have resulted in the granting of official permits to kill or drive off sea lions 

 from specified places on various farms ; but the killing of sea lions under these limited 

 permits has in no way injured the herd up to the present time. The system requires, 

 however, rigorous supervision, since there are people who would like to see the sea lions 

 very seriously reduced or completely exterminated because they dislike the animals. 



There is a general prejudice against the sea lion in the Falklands, partly because 

 many of the people who work on the tussac islands are rather frightened of them and 

 the misdeeds of the animals are therefore exaggerated. In the Falklands horses are a 

 vital means of transport, and one reason for the prejudice against the sea lions is the 

 dislike which most horses seem to have for them. It may be that the horses dislike 

 the smell of a carnivore, but it is open to question whether much of the dislike is not 

 taught to the horses through bad handling ; a horse taking fright on its first acquaintance 

 with a strange animal, such as a sea lion, is promptly beaten by the rider, with the 

 inevitable consequence that fear is fixed in the horse's mind — fear not so much of the 

 sea lion as of being beaten again for having seen the strange animal. I found that 



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