Colin Miskelly has identified these pictures as a New Zealand Sea lion which we early blogged as a New Zealand Fur seal. The New Zealand Sea lion is rarely seen in this area and we appreciate any comments on the blog to further our knowledge. The sub-adult (teenage) male NZ sea lion you have pictured in hookeri and new arrival is the most northern sightings of a NZ sea lion in 200 years!!!! That guy is about 3 – 5 yrs old and probably weighs over 100kg. the sub-adult (teenage) male NZ sea lion you have pictured in hookeri and new arrival is the most northern sightings of a NZ sea lion in 200 years!!!! Check out the NZ sea lion trust website http://www.sealiontrust.org.nz/index.htm it has some great info on NZSLs.

I would like to thank Dr.B.Louise Chilvers a marine mamal scientist with the Dept. of Conservation for this information.

Main difference between the NZ fur seal(PICTURED ABOVE) and sea lion is that the latter has a blunt snout, fur seal snout is pointed. S Lion males are dark brown, females are quite pale like your one. S lion also have no underfur, when fur seals have dense underfur.

Thanks to Phil Bradfield for this information.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Sightings of birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.