Otary with fur of North

The otary with fur of North ( Callorhinus ursinus ), or bear of sea , is only Callorhinus , of the Otariidae (the Otarie S). Callorhinus is borrowed from the Greek and means “beautiful skin”.

Alternative vernacular names: otary with septentrional fur, otary of Alaska, otary of Pribilof.

Description

The otary with fur of North is characterized by its small head with short muzzle and its posterior fins, largest of all the species of otaries.

The males are much taller (2 m, 270 kg) that the females (1,5 m, 60 kg); the males are also characterized by their dark peeling (black or brown dark) and their long moustache, whereas the peeling of the females is clear (gray or clear chestnut).

The males live 20 years, and females 25.

The otaries nourish fish (Hareng S, in particular) and squids, which they drive out as a recluse in cool water. The daily consumption of an otary represents approximately 10 % of the weight of the animal.

Each May, the otaries gather in mass in some rookeries. The females reproduce at the 3 years age, but the males, sexually mature with the age of 4 or 5 years, do not couple themselves before 9 years.

The males, polygamous, must indeed establish their territory and defend it of tens of time against of other applicants, which gives place to often bloody duels, sometimes mortals. Thus, the “owner” of the territory cannot go away to nourish himself during several months, and lives on his reserves: when it turns over to water, it sometimes lost nearly a third of its weight.

The single people gather on “playing fields”, where they are involved with such engagements. The females arrive full, and choose a site among the territories delimited by the males where they constitute harems from ten to twenty females for the majority. The birth of single small intervenes little of time after the arrival of a female. The latter is fertilized five to six days afterwards.

The females have a double Utérus, and it is what allows one duration of Gestation of almost a year, quite higher than that of the other mammals (approximately 9 months).

The young people are separated in October. At the end of November, they migrate towards the south with their congeneric.

Geographical surface

The otary with fur of North meets in the north of the Pacific Ocean - the southernmost limit corresponds roughly to a line going from the southern end of the Japan at the southern end of the Péninsule of Low-California -, in the Mer of Okhotsk and in the Bering Sea.

Its population is estimated at approximately 1 800 000 individuals, of which more than one half reproduce with the islands Pribilof at sea of Bering. The other important zones of reproduction are the islands of the Commander (Bering Sea), the island Robbe (sea of Okhotsk), the islands Kouriles, and the island San Miguel (California).

Drive out

The otary with fur constituted the principal food of the natives (Inuit) of the coasts of Siberia and Alaska during thousands of years. It also provides a fur of quality.

Gerasim Pribilof explored in 1786 the archipelago which bears its name now and discovered the immense rookeries of the otary with fur. Since 1796, the Russian police chief moved natives aléoute S to kill and strip the animals in great number. Those were gathered in fields of demolition, then killed with blows of stick (in the best of the cases, the animal succumbs quickly to only one blow adjusted well on cranium).

In 1820, a new Russian police chief enacted the first protection measures: not to kill the females more; to save a certain proportion of young males.

In 1867, the Pribilof islands became American possession with the Alaska for 7 200 000 dollars; the agents of the US government then estimated the herd of otaries at 2 500 000 of animals. Cupidity carrying it, the rules of protection of the species were abandoned; moreover, pirates undertook raids on the shore of the islands. The otaries were also intensively driven out at sea with the harpoon.

In 1892, when the manpower of the otaries became lower than a million individual, the authorities started to be concerned with fall of the incomes of demolition. An agreement was signed in Paris in 1893 to at sea prohibit hunting in a ray of 60 marine miles around Pribilof, like in the Bering Sea of May 1st of July 31st.

Although the United States armed with the drain-holes to make respect the agreement, slaughter continued, and in 1910, there remained nothing any more but 160 000 otaries in the Pribilof islands. Writers, whose Jack London and Rudyard Kipling, succeeded in moving the public opinion, and in July 1911, was signed in Washington the Traité for the safeguarding of the otaries with fur , between the Great Britain, the Canada, the the United States, the Russia and the Japan; this agreement completely prohibited hunting at sea in exchange of a percentage on the demolition of the otaries.

This commercial exploitation ceased since 1984; currently, approximately 1500 individuals are taken annually by the indigenous population for their food. Whereas pelagic fishing would only destroy with it several thousands of otaries per annum.

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