♦^- 



V 



In late June this 9-year-old bull fur seal Is approaching the age when he 

 will compete actively for territory on a rookery. Probably the territory 

 he seeks will be near the spot where he was born. 



Except as stragglers, few fur seals range north 

 of the Pribilof Islands. They migrate south to 

 the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara, Calif. In 

 the west they range from the vicinity of the Com- 

 mander Islands to the seas southwest of Kinkazan 

 Peninsula on northern Honshu and into the Sea 

 of Japan. 



Fur seals breed on the following islands: St. 

 Paul and St. George Islands and Sea Lion Rock 

 of the Pribilof group in Alaska; Copper and 

 Bering Islands of the Commander group off 



Kamchatka; Robben Island, off Sakhalin; Kot- 

 ikovaya Rock and Srednevoya Island in the Kurile 

 Chain of Islands. Seals were also reported by 

 the Soviet Institute of Oceanology to be 

 on the Kurile Islands, Paramushir and Urup, 

 but no pups were seen. Fur seals of the 



Kurile Islands were thought to be exterminated 

 by sealers in the 1890's; however, in 1955 and 

 1956, investigations revealed their presence once 

 again, in small numbers. About 80 percent of 

 the northern fur seals are from the Pribilof 

 Islands. 



