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Description

With each individual possessing a unique pattern of fine, dark spots (or light spots on a dark background in some variants), they vary in colour from brownish black to tan or grey; underparts are generally lighter. The body and flippers are short, with a proportionately large, rounded head. The nostrils appear distinctively V-shaped; as with other true seals, there is no ear flap, or pinna. A relatively large (for a seal) ear canal may be visible posterior to the eye. Including the head and flippers, they may reach an adult length of 1.85 metres and a weight of 130 kilograms. Females are generally smaller than males.

This fur seal has a short and broad snout compared with others in the family. Adult males are dark brown in colour. Females and juveniles tend to be grey with a lighter underside. Colour patterns are highly variable, and some scientists believe that some hybridisation with subantarctic fur seals has occurred. Pups are dark brown, nearly black at birth. About one in 1000 Antarctic fur seals are pale 'blonde' variants.

Males are substantially larger (2 m, 200 kg) than females (1.35 m, 40 kg). Males live for about 15 years and females up to 25.

Antarctic Fur Seals appear to act alone when foraging and migrating. Males breed polygynously — a strong male may have more than a dozen female partners in a single season. Territories are established on breeding grounds in October to early November, when the musty-smelling males are extremely aggressive in defence of their harems. Females gestate for just over a year - giving birth in November or December. Pups are weaned at about month old. Juveniles may then spend several years in the water before returning to begin their breeding cycle.

The usual food supply is krill, and each Antarctic Fur seal eats about a ton of krill each year. Due to the enormous and growing populations of these seals, their food is a significant proportion of South Georgia's krill stocks.
 
Population

With an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 individuals, the population is not threatened as a whole; most subspecies are secure in numbers with the Greenland, Hokkaido and Baltic Sea populations being exceptions. Local populations have been reduced or eliminated through outbreaks of disease and conflict with humans, both unintentionally and intentionally. While it is legal to kill seals which are perceived to threaten fisheries in the United Kingdom, Norway and Canada, commercial hunting is illegal; the seals are also taken in subsistence hunting and accidentally as bycatch in fishing nets. In the United States stricter protection applies, and it is illegal to kill any seals or any marine mammals, as they fall under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. On the East Coast of the United States their numbers seem to be increasing quite steadily as they are reclaiming parts of their range, and have been seen as far south as South Carolina. Female common seals have a life span of 30-35 years while male lifespans are usually 20-25. Scientists have suggested that this is due to stresses male seals are subjected to during breeding seasons.
 
Scientific classification
If they survive the dangers of being a pup, seals are relatively long-lived animals. Both species often live longer than 30 years and one female grey seal in the Shetland Islands was known to be 46 years old. Since many seals die at sea, it is difficult to know the major causes of death. Diseases caused by parasites, pollution, and drowning in fishing nets are some of the main reasons.
 
 
 
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