<h1>How to distinguish between fur seals, sea lions, and seals? What is the difference between them? </h1>
Many people unfamiliar with marine life may often mistakenly recognize the first time they see sea lions, seals, and fur seals, all three of which are named after carnivorous beasts on land, plus their appearances are very similar, such as beards, thick short hairs, and even the looks on their faces are very similar. So it's not hard to understand that some wildlife enthusiasts often call them by the wrong name when they first see them, so let's introduce the difference between them and how to distinguish seals, sea lions and fur seals.
fur seal
sea lion
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<h1>Fur seal families, sea lion families, and seal families</h1>
Both fur seals and sea lions belong to the sea lion family, but belong to different subfamilies, while seals are a single seal family. Fur seals are a subfamily of fur seals, divided into two genera and eight species, of which the subspecies distributed in China's sea areas are northern fur seals, weighing about 140-260 kg and having a relatively short snout. Sea lion is a subfamily of sea lions, divided into five genera and seven species, of which the North Sea lion distributed in China's sea areas is mainly yellow-brown, the hair on the chest and abdomen is relatively shallow, the body is thin and long, and the weight is about 300-1000 kg.
In the fur seal subfamily, it can be subdivided into New Zealand fur seals, Galapagos fur seals, Antarctic fur seals, Hudao fur seals, South Australian fur seals, Guadalupe fur seals, sub-Antarctic fur seals and northern fur seals;
The sea lion subfamily can be divided into sea lions, New Zealand sea lions, Australian sea lions, South American sea lions, California sea lions, Galapagos sea lions, and Japanese sea lions (extinct);
The seal subfamily can be subdivided into crab-eating seals, elephant seals, crowned seals, leopard seals, Ross seals, Weddell seals, monk seals, saddle seals, ring seals, ringed seals, grey seals, bearded seals, and spotted seals. In terms of naming, fur seals and sea lions can be seen, they are mainly named according to the rules of distribution, while the naming rules of seals are more chaotic, and there are almost no rules to follow.
<h1>Differences in distribution range</h1>
Fur seals live in a relatively wide area, it can be said that they are all over the world, and some or all of the seas of Antarctica, South Africa, China, Australia and other countries can see the traces of fur seals. Because the fur seal is divided into two genera, of which there is only one species in the genus Of the Northern Sea Seal, that is, the North Sea Seal, which is mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere north of 35 °, the species of the South Sea Dog are relatively large, due to the large number of breeds, so the distribution range is also relatively wide, the southernmost can reach Antarctica, the northernmost can reach the equator.
Sea lions have a much smaller range than fur seals, mainly in the North Pacific, off the coast of South America, along the northwest coast of the United States, and off the southwest coast of Australia. It should also be seen from the above figure that the countries where sea lions are distributed are mainly in the Pacific Rim.
From the perspective of distribution range, seals can be roughly divided into two categories, one is the seal subfamily, mainly distributed in the northern hemisphere, and the other is the monk seal subfamily, mainly distributed in the southern hemisphere, but in addition, it can also be seen in small quantities in the northern hemisphere.
<h1>Differences between body types</h1>
The fur seal is the lightest of the three, the adult fur seal is about 20-30 kg in the range, the body length is 150-210 cm, but in different indeed, there will be a small number of differences between different personality individuals, but not very large, so it seems that they are all small;
Seals are medium in size, but vary widely between subspecies, such as adult spotted seals between 120 and 150 kg, bearded seals can reach 400 kg, and the smallest of all seals weighs an average of only about 90 kg.
Sea lions, like seals, have obvious differences between different subspecies, of which the largest is the North Sea Lion, the male is about 310-350 cm long, and can weigh more than 1000 kg, which is considered to be a behemoth, but compared to the elephant seal, the body size is still much smaller and not dominant.
<h1>Subtle differences in appearance: look at the spots, look at the ears</h1>
Although these three marine animals are more similar in appearance, if you look closely, you can still see a lot of differences. For example, seals have spots on their bodies, so it can be seen from the naming that all leopards on land are striped, and since seals can be named, they will inevitably have some characteristics of leopards. Most seals are covered with short fur, a pale yellow belly, and a grayish-blue back with blue-black spots, which is one of their important features.
Sea lions belong to the same family as fur seals, are spotless, and although they are also covered with short hair, they look like they are bare and slippery. But they all have ears, two small ears attached to the head, while seals look like pierced ears and don't have the body structure of the pinna. In addition, compared with the sea lion, the fur seal has more fine and fluffy hair, which can be called fluff, and the head of the fur seal is shorter and rounder, in a popular word, the fur seal looks more flexible and shrewd.
One of the most important features of sea lions in appearance should be the neck, most of them still have obvious manes on the neck, in fact, like seals, according to the rules can roughly guess one or two, just like lions are the only cats with manes. Adult males also have long, thick manes around the neck and shoulders, and above the neck length, they are obviously much longer than seals, and have a greater advantage than fur seals.
<h1>Looking at the way of behavior, all three are very different</h1>
Behavior is also one of the important factors in judging fur seals, sea lions and seals, first of all, from the way of walking, fur seals are faster, running like a clumsy dog, on land, its speed can catch up with humans, and fur seals are very fierce, not easy to train;
The sea lion is able to walk upright, but it is not fast, it is precisely because it can stand up, so in many aquariums, basically sea lions are performed;
Seals walk by squirming, a bit like bugs that are too fat.
By carefully distinguishing these characteristics, it is easy to distinguish which are fur seals, sea lions and seals, and it is worth mentioning that these three marine creatures are rare and protected animals, and the number is decreasing due to the over-hunting of humans and the continuous deterioration of the natural environment.
Humans also spare no effort in protecting them, fur seals have been recognized as endangered animals by the World Wildlife Conservation Association, and only Namibia in the world can reasonably and legally kill fur seals;
Russia has banned the commercial slaughter of seals, the European Union has banned all trade in commercial seal hunting, and has set up related anniversaries, such as March 1 as International Seal Day in China, but even so, there are still people in some areas who continue to poach rare marine life, so their protection needs to be strengthened.