exotic seals and sea lions...

P

patrick

Well-Known Member
australasia, and australia in particular is home to quite a host of resident and vagrant pinneped species and naturally our zoos collections reflect this.

new zealand fur seals (that are also found in naturally in australia),
afro-austrlian fur seals,
sub-antarctic fur seals,
australian sea lions
and even a
leopard seal

....are all found in many of our zoos and marine parks. taronga and seaworld have particuarly impressive collections.

however sea world also has a small group of harbour seals and many other zoos display and have displayed californian sea lions in the past. these are both species of the northern hemisphere.

now understandably, sea world is a park devoted to marine fauna, so i can see why they have their own agenda and breeding programs for species the rest of our regions zoos have no interest in. harbour seals are an earless seal species, distinctly different from other common species in zoos here and i doubt they had the ability to aqcuire a permit to head to some of our offshore sub-antarctic islands to start collecting and of our more localised species.

but californian sealions feature in plenty of zoos collections and whilst i understand there is a movement to phase them out at certain parks (auckland finally acquired their first NZ fur seal recently), i do wonder this....

was this exotic species imported due to lack of availability of native species to meet requirements? i wasn't aware (though it could be the case) that any of our seals bred poorly in captivity. or is it that they do breed well but that nonetheless there is still a lack of animals due to the minimal amount of wild, yet unrehabitatable seals that are available for zoos to keep?
or do californian sealions display particular behavioural traits that make them more suitable for training and use in live performances?

presumably the ideal is to focus on our southern hemispherian species, particuarly the australian sea lion, which is not doing very well in the wild.

i'm not trying to make any criticism's here. just open up a question for discussion. i have always wondered why so many zoos here have chosen to import the californian species.
 
patrick said:
or do californian sealions display particular behavioural traits that make them more suitable for training and use in live performances?
Click to expand...

I would say there's a few reasons why zoo's would prefer californians. First of all they are easier to aquire and probably also easier to get rid of any surplus, considering how many zoo's keep them.

But i think the main reason is what you mentioned up above, californian sealions are more suitable for training then fur-seals, who are usually more docile. They are more active in a normal enclosure setting, as far as i've seen em more vocal and their willingness to do things for food is much greater then any of the lazy fur-seal species. Therefor, they are more popular with guests and in every park that i've seen that display both, the crowd always pass the sleeping fur-seals and gather at sea-lions.

Another bonus besides their activity is they are slightly more agile, which will give a zoo-visitor with an underwater view a more impressive sight, and also improves the educational messages that these clumsy land-animals are ment for water.
 
I've noticed a trend in the UK zoos recently- several of the conservation -orientated ones have ditched Californian sealions in favour of Fur Seals and 'coastal exhibits', the more entertainment orientated places still have Californian Sealions because- as Jwer said- they are much better performers for the public. I'd also say they're one of the sharpest, most intelligent mammals around.
London Zoo got rid of their sealions due to their 'conservation policy' and didn't replace them, while Whipsnade(also part of ZSL) still have californian sealions (in their old Dolphin exhibit) and do a daily 'training show' which is very popular- so they realise that despite being non- endangered, this is still a very popular species with the public.
Amon the bigger fur seals the Patagonian is a similarly active species, but the smaller ones aren't.
 
i suspected they were more easily trained. thanks guys. it'll be interesting to see what melbourne do with with their afro-australian and sub-antarctic fur seal show when their new coastal precinct is built. taronga has just one or two californians that it used for shows. but i believe with the new show they will be utising many of their other species in their new show as well. many of ours zoos seem not to breed their seals/sealions since they are long-lived and their is often a need for them to take in injured seals that cannot be re-released. i belive almost all of melbournes fur seals are originally from the wild. hence how they ended up with the two species (who are generally all mixed together most of the time). i know taronga is hoping to continue with leopard seals, but they only have one female left and will be relying on the fortunate/unfortunate occourance of a sick individiual (a male) turining up on the australian coastline if they want to breed them..
 
the chance of a male leopard seal washing up somewhere on the nsw coast is not as remote as it may seem.
andi and michi, taronga's two male sealions came from stuttgart zoo in germany for the simple reason that they are (as stated above) easier to train. these animals are in the seal show.
taronga also used to have southern elephant seals. three seals lived permanently at the zoo and the zoo also rehabilated and released a wild female.
the three captives were the subject of several research projects,w hich at the time yielded previously unknown info...
 
i thought taronga got a mate for it's leopard seals, another washed up, but sorry i dnt have solid evidence so i carnt speculate, sorry zoopro
 
Is it Taronga who still have a Leopard Seal? I saw them there some years back (I think there were two then) and they're a pretty scary-looking creatures, and the size(whew..) I also saw one in a New Zealand Marine Park around the same time(1990) but I guess there are no others in captivity now and Taronga is the only place?
 
they did have a male at one stage from memory, but i'm more sure that until recently they had just two females - that number is reduced to just one today - the only leopard seal registered in captivity on isis.

i've seen her once, and agreed grant, damn scary and MUCH bigger than i had anticipated!

i saw wild elephant seals in patagonia - now they are BIG!!!
 
Is the Leopard seal at Taronga Zoo on display or is it kept behind the scenes (perhaps some research facility or something?)?
 
Jwer- It(they) was certainly on display when I saw it though the 'local guys' can probably tell you more.

Patrick- I never realised Leopard Seals were so big or fearsome until I saw one. Elephant seal I've only ever seen one,- on a beach in NEw Zealand(they have occassional vagrants turn up there, usually young bulls) and I know they're enormous...
 
Brooke is on permanent display, in the central seal pools, where on another note the more aggressive animals including Brooke are being crate-trained for movement to Southern Oceans.
 
Napier marineland NZ ( history )

MARINELAND - Napier on New Zealand Tourism Online

I dont know the answers to any gaps , but some of you might be interested about the comings and goings of various species here .....

There was a marineland that was North of Auckland that used to have a preforming sea elephant -- I had never seen such a huge ( and ugly ) seal like creature before or since !!
 
Would it be possible for Taronga to obtain some wild caught leopard seals? Does any one know why the female has not been released? What is it's history?
 
Nigel said:
MARINELAND - Napier on New Zealand Tourism Online

I dont know the answers to any gaps , but some of you might be interested about the comings and goings of various species here .....

There was a marineland that was North of Auckland that used to have a preforming sea elephant -- I had never seen such a huge ( and ugly ) seal like creature before or since !!
Click to expand...

This is the place where I saw the other Leopard Seal(about 1990) It actually performed like the sealion show and I have a postcard which shows it leaping for fish.

Brooke is an interesting name for such a ferocious creature. I believe this is a species where the female is bigger than the male?
 
Sorry, I'll amend the above to 'ferocious-looking ' creature as for all I know Brooke may be a pussycat in captivity...:)
 
Brooke arrived in 1999 from the wild for rehab, aged approximately 1 year.

The other leopard seal that was at Taronga most recently was another female called Halley. She was moved from Pet Porpoise Pool in 2000 to Taronga, and died in mid 2003.

I doubt that Taronga would collect more leopard seals from the wild, but if additional rehab animals came into the zoo, and they were not suitable for future release, then I guess they may decide to keep them. I guess it would depend on the individual circumstances of each animal.
 
That's very interesting. I know very little about this species and doubt it can be seen anywhere else in captivity.

I mentioned seeing one 'performing' at Marineworld,Napier. NZ. many years ago. Are they generally good natured in captivity?

Does Brooke show an inclination to perform/relate to her keepers or is she still aggressive like they are portrayed in the wild?
 
Grant, I don't know much about the management of the leopard seal at Taronga, but I'll check in with a couple of the keepers and see what I can find out. This female certainly isn't used in shows, and the keepers do not go in with her, as far as I know.

There's an interesting article about Tracy Rogers, who runs the Australian Marine Mammal Research Centre at Taronga, and her work with leopard seals:

Connect the Spots: Revealing Leopard Seal Secrets

Although much of Tracy's work on leopard seals has been in the wild, it's an interesting read.
 
Grant, I've just uploaded a few photos of Brooke to the Taronga Zoo gallery. The transport cage is in the exhibit so she gets conditioned to it prior to moving to the new ocean precinct. For those who are interested in seal dentition (:eek: ), there's a close up of her impressive set of teeth!
 
Thanks ZooPro. That's an interesting read. And I was right in thinking adult females are larger than the males...

I'd be interested to know about the temperament of Brooke in relation to her management in captivity etc. The one I saw at Napier N.Z. actually jumped out of the pool 'on command' and took thrown fish etc and that was a fully adult one too.

This is a fascinating, little known species- I guess very few people in the Northern Hemisphere even know about them unless they're Antartic explorers...
 
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