THE MAKING OF A FUR-SEAL CENSUS 
By George Archibald Clark 
{Of Leland Stanford University] 
HE really important practical 
problem in connection with the 
fur-seal herd of the Pribilof 
Islands has always been that of enumera- 
tion. How many animals are there? 
Is the herd increasing or diminishing? 
What is the rate either way? What 
number of young males can safely be 
taken each 
year? What 
breeding — re- 
serve should 
be set aside? 
These ques- 
tions can be 
answered _ ef- 
fectively only 
by a more or 
less exact cen- 
sus of the 
herd. 
In making a 
fur-seal census 
you cannot, as 
in the case of 
human com- 
munities, go to 
the head of 
the household. 
The harem 
master is not 
an approacha- 
ble being and 
will not discuss family affairs with you. 
You go within his circle, if at all, at your 
peril. You can stand on the neighbor- 
ing cliffs and looking down upon his 
household observe many things of in- 
terest; but this will not tell you whether 
all his wives are at home or how many 
children he has. The children hide in 
the crevices of the rocks and most of the 
mothers are away at sea feeding. 
It is easy to count the harem masters. 
Each one is big and aggressive and is 
always at home. As you come into his 
range of vision he rises up to greet you 
like a bristling question mark. The 
fur-seal families can therefore be easily 
Itis 
possible 
to count the 
individual fe- 
males on many 
Sega ibe ned 
breeding areas, 
and this fact 
has been uti- 
lized at times 
counted. 
even 
to, gain an 
approximate 
enumeration, 
an average 
being 
thus obtained 
which could be 
applied to 
breeding areas 
where counts 
of individuals 
harem 
were impossi- 
ble. 
The fur-seal 
census how- 
ever, does not rest finally with the adult 
animals; it rests in the young of the 
season, or the fur-seal pups. Although 
destined to spend most of its life in the 
water and to brave all kinds of weather, 
the fur-seal pup in the beginning is timid 
of the water and keeps away from it dur- 
ing the first month or six weeks of its life. 
13 
Bull fur seal, Gorbatch Rookery, St. Paul Island 
