Scent of Otariids

Abstract

SOME years ago I was engaged in an examination of the small, almost residual, herd of fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) in the Falkland Islands. In the course of it a number of animals were killed, among them several bulls, or ‘wigs’ in the sealer's vocabulary. After handling the bulls', skins there was left on the unwashed hands a general, not unpleasant, ‘seal’ smell; but after washing there remained a definite perfume rather resembling the odour emitted by the common civet when it is pleasurably excited. On one bright, sunny day, therefore somewhat warm on the rocks, I passed a few feet away from and to leeward of a bull and I was able to observe the pleasant perfume, which was definitely air-borne. If I remember rightly, this seal was a little angry. The seals on which these observations were made were all met with in summer, that is, over the rather extended breeding season.