1. TAXONOMY
Three species of otariid seals (‘eared seals’) breed on continental Australia, Tas. and surrounding islands: longnosed fur seals (Arctocephalus forsteri), Australian fur seals (A.
pusillus doriferus) and Australian sea-lions (Neophoca cinerea). The subantarctic fur seal (A. tropica- lis) is a frequent visitor to the coast of southern Australia, but is only known to breed on Macquarie Is. within the Australian Territory; the Antarctic fur seal (A. gazella) is a rare visitor to the shores near the Australian mainland, but is known to breed on Macquarie Is. and Heard Is.The taxonomy of these seals remains unstable because historically these species were typically placed in the genus Arctocephalus. However, a major review of seal taxonomy using both molecular and morphological data proposed that the genus of all fur seals, other than A. pusillus, should be changed from Arctocephalus to Arc- tophoca (Berta and Churchill 2012). This was followed by Jackson and Groves (2015). Some authors, however, have suggested provisionally keeping all these species within Arctocephalus until the issue is further resolved (Nyakatura and Birinda-Emonds 2012; Committee on Taxonomy 2017). This has been adopted in this chapter.
As most of the current population of A. forsteri lives in Australia, not NZ, a more appropriate common name, the long-nosed fur seal (formerly known as the New Zealand fur seal) was proposed by Shaughnessy and Goldsworthy (2015) and has now been adopted (Jackson and Groves 2015).
Within the Family Phocidae (the ‘true seals’), the leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) and the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) are the most frequent visitors to the southern Australian coast, as Australian continental waters lie within their foraging ranges. Southern elephant seals may come ashore to rest and moult between September and March, and leopard seals may haul out and rest during late winter and spring. Crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophaga), Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii) and Ross seals (Ommatophoca rossii) are rarely reported visitors (Kirkwood and Goldsworthy 2013).
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