Sea Lions

The sea lion is the biggest member of the Otariidae or "eared seals." ; they were named sea lions because the males are similar to the African lion. The adult males have a large head, neck, and shoulders; their hair grows on the neck and shoulders giving it the look like a lion. The female are much smaller, they are just a little over 8 feet long and weigh over 580 pounds. The males can grow up to 11 feet long and weigh a little over 1,200 pounds. They are yellowish to dark brown; they can live up to 20 years and swim up to 17mph.The sea lions eat all different kinds of fish such as pollock, flounder, herring, capelin, Pacific cod, salmon, rockfish, sculpins, and invertebrates like squid and octopus. Males mate with females give birth, to one pup in May or July then come into estrus in their territory. They breed soon after giving birth, but the egg is not fertilized in the uterus yet but starts growing in October. Some females start breed in their first and third year, but by their sixth year, almost all of the females are breeding and having pups.The sea lions are found anywhere ranging from Alaska to northwestern California, Russia, in the Kurile and Commander islands, and south as far as Hokkaido and northern Honshu in Japan.“ In the 1970s, the global population of the sea lions was about 281,800, with the Alaska population estimated at 242,000, including pups. The number of sea lions in Alaska declined by 50 percent from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s.”Seasonal movements take place usually from exposed areas in summer in order to protected areas in winter. They can move over long distances, the longest time recorded was by an animal that was marked at Marmot Island near Kodiak and taken near Ketchikan, and the distance was just about 900 miles

Work Cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Sea_Lion
http://sealioncaves.com/about/sea_lions/
http://www.petersburgalaska.com/sealion.html
http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/special/esa/sealion_steller/s_sealion.php