V.-MENTAL TRAITS OF THE PRIBILOF FUR SEAL. 



By Frederic A. Lucas. 



Fifteen years ago, when my acquaintance with the fur seal was solely through the 

 medium of books, I wrote: "Animals which witness the killing of their young with 

 indifference, do not try to escape from danger themselves, and tranquilly remain in a 

 locality where hundreds of their kind are daily slaughtered do not seem remarkable 

 for their intelligence." To-day, after a careful study of the behavior of the seal in 

 the field, there seems to be no reason to retract anything of this. The fur seal is a 

 creature of strong instincts, but little intelligence. The mechanical functions of life 

 are performed to perfection, but it is seldom guilty of an act requiring reason. 



By intellect or intelligence in this sense is meant the power to choose among 

 different possible courses of action. The external influences and internal impulses 

 produce certain impressions on the nervous system of the animal. By the automatic 

 instinct the response which follows is directly related to the cause, and there is no 

 choice among responses. So much influence, so much rebound. By the operations of 

 instinct each individual, in given conditions, will act just as any other individual will. 

 Intellect, however, implies individuality. One animal will choose to do this, another 

 that, adapting action to the special needs or circumstances. A fur seal will do what 

 his ancestors have had to do to perfection. If he is led to do anything else he is dazed 

 and stupid. For these reasons our experiments in better methods of culling killable 

 seals by sending the herd through a wooden chute were not successful. The most 

 experienced bulls would beat their noses against a door closed before them if one 

 before them had been seen to pass through it. That one door was shut and another 

 opened is beyond their comprehension. 



When not engaged in the performance of the more mechanical functions of life 

 the conduct of the fur seal is marked by a most exasperating indirectness, and in 

 many ways they remind one of Kipling's description of the Banda Log, starting to do 

 one thing and ending by doing another. A seal coming ashore to nurse her puj) will 

 tarry by the wayside to doze and scratch, calling at intervals for the young one, often 

 taking half an hour to progress a hundred yards or so. This is not because cows 

 will not allow pups to nurse them when wet, for pups were seen nursing cows just 

 from the water, but because the fur seal is indirect by nature. Just so in no instance 

 was a seal observed to go directly out to sea to feed or directly to return. Day after 

 day seals were seen to enter the water; day after day they were seen to come out of 

 it; but in each case the individual was lost in or emerged from the mass of seals 

 Sporting along the margin of the rookery.' 



' Mr. Clar^, as noted elsewhere, considers this to be due to the fact that seals remain in the water 

 until food has digested ; but while this would account for the lingering of returning seals, it -would 

 not account for their delay in going. 



