ZOOLOGY: G. H. PARKER 
173 
The idle bulls, to turn to another element in the herd, are those males 
that have attained breeding age but that have failed to obtain one or more 
females. They usually occupy less favorable areas on the outskirts of the 
rookeries and may even move from place to place. They can be counted 
with almost as much accuracy as the harem bulls, but their occasional mi- 
grations make their count somewhat uncertain. In 1917 the idle bulls were 
so numerous that it was deemed wise to subdivide them into two classes, idle 
bulls proper or those with fixed positions on the breeding grounds but with- 
out females, and surplus bulls or those that were unable to find positions on 
the breeding ground and that usually resorted to other parts of the beaches 
notably the bachelors' hauling grounds. These two classes are combined in 
table 1, 1917, under the single head 'idle bulls.' 
The idle bull indicates a maladjustment in the breeding conditions of the 
fur seal. This feature has already been pointed out as evidence of imperfect 
adaptation in this species (Parker, 1915). As already stated, in the fur seal, 
as in most other higher animals, the numbers of males and females at birth 
are very nearly equal. When the breeding period arrives, however, one male 
associates himself with a large number of females, the lowest average harem 
in the last five years being over 26 females to one male. Consequently, not- 
withstanding the fact that the male breeding period is only six to eight years 
(Clark, 1916, p. 608) as contrasted with the longer female period of approxi- 
mately ten or eleven years, many males do not procure females. Thus the 
idle bulls are a measure of this natural maladjustment within the herd. 
In a wholly natural state of the herd they would undoubtedly be repre- 
sented by considerable numbers. Their presence, at least in large num- 
bers, can never be anything but a detriment. They are continually stirring 
up strife not only among themselves but also among the breeding bulls and 
they are accountable for the maiming and the death of many young seals. 
They are the individuals that in the period of their best pilage should have 
been killed for their skins and their excessive numbers indicate poor man- 
agement of the herd. Their history during the period under consideration is 
shown in table 1 and more strikingly in Graph 2, B. Here it will be seen 
that the numbers of idle bulls remained small from 1912 to 1915 after which it 
increased considerably in 1916 and enormously in 1917. 
This constitutes the one unfavorable feature in the recuperation of the herd, 
for it marks the effective appearance on the beaches of the first real element 
that is detrimental. Fortunately it is within reasonably easy control, for the 
fur seal herd is open to the same kind of management that chickens or cattle 
are. In these stocks, as in the fur seals, the sexes are approximately equal, 
at birth and in both instances, although good management calls for a careful 
rearing and preservation of females, it also demands the retention of only 
such males as are necessary for breeding, the excess being drawn off for market 
purposes. This is clearly what should be done with the surplus male seals, 
a step that out government is now prepared to take (Smith, 1917, p. 92). 
