Percentages of seals returning to the exact marking site,--Ten thousand 
seal pups were marked in 1941 with individually numbered tags, on all six of 
the rookery groups of St. Paul Island. The pups went to sea in the late fall 
and the survivors among them returned in each successive summer, For only 
oe males do we have adequate data on the return to the home site of each year 
class: 
1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 
Age of seal in years 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 
Number of tagged 1 46158) «€6l4g 11 21 6 2 
seals recovered 
Percentages found on 
hauling ground adjacent 
to, home rookery 28 64 6 7 86 00 100 
It is thus apparent that the two-year male seal is drawn less strongly 
to the site of his birth than is the older seal. Further evidence on this 
point is furnished by Soviet investigators, Three fur seals tagged as pups 
on St. Paul Island in 1941 were killed as two-year olds on the Commander Islands 
1,800 miles away, in the sumer of 1943 (Glavavyerovod, letter of April 28, 1945). 
The homing instinct of the male seal vaties greatly with the site of his 
birth. Thus, we found, over the period 1943 to 1946, the following percentage 
of return for each of the six rookery groups on St. Paul Islands 
Percentage found 
on hauling ground 
Number of tagged adjacent to home 
seals recovered rookery 
Northeast Point 73 77 
Reef and Gorbatch 135 64 
Polovina Group 62 58 
Tolstoi 58 55 
Lukanin and Kitovi 30 40 
Zapadni Group 70_ 29 
Total 429 Miean 57 
We can not explain this wide range in values, from 29 percent to 77 percent, 
With regard to the homing instinct of females we can only say that eighteen 
tagged females were recovered in 1945-1949, sixteen of them on the rookery of 
their birth. 
Effectiveness of hot-iron brands,.--In the 1940 and 1941 series, the size 
of the brand at the time of appaication was about 0.75-l1 by 2 inches, or 1.5- 
2.0 square inches. In 1940 the brand was placed across the body and in 1941 
25 
