![]() ![]() “We collected samples of their faeces and found they contained extremely high levels of cadmium and other elements such as mercury,” said Constanza Toro-Valdivieso of Cambridge University’s conservation research institute. Little else was known about the seal’s detailed biology until scientists began studying the Arctocephalus philippii in detail recently – making some startling discoveries in the process. Adults forage at sea while pups are born in November and December with soft black fur that fades to light brown in a few years. Since then, the Juan Fernández seal, which has become a protected species, has slowly recovered and has a population of around 80,000 living on the island’s rocky shores, according to the most recent figures. By the 19th century, the species had disappeared and was believed to be extinct until, in the 1960s, a small colony was found in a cave on the island. However, the animals were hunted for their fur and meat with such vigour that around 4 million are now thought to have been slaughtered. ![]() In the early 18th century, the shores of Robinson Crusoe island teemed with Juan Fernández seals. ![]() It was here that sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned from 1704 to 1709, an experience that was fictionalised by Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe after whom the archipelago’s main island is now named. philippii is the second smallest species of fur seal and lives only on the Juan Fernández archipelago and one or two nearby islands in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles off the coast of Chile. ![]()
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