Juan Fernandez Fur Seal
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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Juan Fernandez Fur Seal | status = Conservation status: Vulnerable | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammalia | ordo = Carnivora | subordo = Pinnipedia | familia = Otariidae | subfamilia = Arctocephalinae | genus = Arctocephalus | species = A. philippii | binomial = Arctocephalus philippii | binomial_authority = Peters, 1866 }}
The Juan Fernandez Fur Seal (Arctocephalus philippii) is a fur seal that breeds on the Juan Fernandez Islands off the coast of Chile. It is the second smallest of the pinnipeds (the closely-related Galapagos Fur Seal is smaller still). Discovered by navigator Juan Fernández in the sixteenth century, the seals became a target for sealers in the seventeenth. They were thought extinct mid-way through the twentieth century until a population of 200 was found. The population was protected and has grown quickly. There are now believed to be at least 10,000 animals on and around the island.
References
- {{ cite book
| title = National Audubon Society Guide to Marine Mammals of the World | author = Randall R. Reeves, Brent S. Stewart, Phillip J. Clapham and James A. Powell | publisher = Alfred A. Knopf, Inc | year = 2002 | id = ISBN 0375411410 }}Template:Mammal-stub