Brown fur seal
Arctocephalus pusillus (Schreber, 1775)
The brown fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) is a mammal in the family Otariidae, order Carnivora, also called the Cape fur seal, Australian fur seal or South African fur seal. It is a large, marine, nocturnal piscivore with an adult body mass of 178.5 kg.
Quick facts about the brown fur seal
The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, and checklists record it in Australia.
- Weight
- 127.6 kg – 178.5 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 21 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Piscivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 32.1 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 358 days – 365 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 3.54 years – 4.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Marinesrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the brown fur seal
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.
Where does the brown fur seal live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The brown fur seal is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the brown fur seal?
Arctocephalus pusillus, commonly known as the Afro-Australian fur seal, or brown fur seal is a species of fur seal. The species is often referred to as the Cape fur seal, although this name is also used specifically for the nominate subspecies, A. p. pusillus, of southern Africa. The other subspecies, A. p. doriferus, is found in Australia and is known as the Australian fur seal.
From the Wikipedia article “Arctocephalus pusillus” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arctocephalus_pusillus&oldid=1375961701), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the brown fur seal endangered?
The brown fur seal is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.
How is the brown fur seal classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCarnivora
- familyOtariidae
- genusArctocephalus
- SpeciesArctocephalus pusillus (Schreber, 1775)
Synonyms Phoca pusilla
Other names and names in other languages (38)
- Afro-Australian fur sealEnglish
- Afro-Australian fur sealEnglish
- Australian fur sealEnglish
- Australian fur sealEnglish
- Cape fur sealEnglish
- Cape fur sealEnglish
- Giant fur sealEnglish
- South African fur sealEnglish
- South African fur sealEnglish
- Tasmanian fur sealEnglish
- Kaapse PelsrobAfrikaans
- فقمة الفراء البنيةArabic
- فقمة الفراء الأسترالية الأفريقيةArabic
- lachtan jihoafrickýCzech
- Sydafrikansk pelssælDanish
- Afro-australsk pelssælDanish
- Südafrikanischer SeebärGerman
- Καφέ Γουνοφόρα ΦώκιαGreek
- Lobo marino del CaboSpanish
- Lobo marino de El Cabo o AustralianoSpanish
- afrikanhyljeFinnish
- AfrikanmerikarhuFinnish
- Arctocéphale d'Afrique du SudFrench
- Otarie à fourrure d'Afrique du SudFrench
- dél-afrikai medvefókaHungarian
- Otaria orsina afroaustralianaItalian
- ミナミアフリカオットセイJapanese
- 갈색물개Korean
- BrunpelsselNorwegian Bokmål
- Zuid-Afrikaanse ZeebeerDutch
- kotik karłowatyPolish
- Lobo-marinho-australianoPortuguese
- Капский морской котикRussian
- Южноафриканский морской котикRussian
- Sydafrikansk pälssälSwedish
- Морський котик капськийUkrainian
- Морський котик південноафриканськийUkrainian
- Inja Yolwandle YasekapaXhosa
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the brown fur seal
Other species in the same genus Arctocephalus.
Antarctic fur seal
Arctocephalus gazella
South American fur seal
Arctocephalus australis
Subantarctic fur seal
Arctocephalus tropicalis
Black fur seal
Arctocephalus forsteri
Galápagos fur seal
Arctocephalus galapagoensis
Juan Fernández fur seal
Arctocephalus philippii
CompareBrown fur seal vs Antarctic fur sealBrown fur seal vs South American fur sealBrown fur seal vs Subantarctic fur sealBrown fur seal vs Black fur seal
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the brown fur seal?
The brown fur seal is a mammal in the family Otariidae and the order Carnivora. It is a marine, nocturnal animal.
How heavy is the brown fur seal?
An adult Brown fur seal has a body mass of 178.5 kg, which places it in the large size class.
What does the brown fur seal eat?
The brown fur seal is a piscivore, and its trophic level is carnivore.
Is the brown fur seal endangered?
No. The IUCN lists the brown fur seal as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.
How long does the brown fur seal live?
The brown fur seal has a lifespan of 21 years, with values up to 32.1 years reported.
How many young does the brown fur seal have?
The brown fur seal has 1 young per litter and 1 litter per year, after a gestation period of 357.8 days.
Which countries is the brown fur seal recorded in?
Checklists record the brown fur seal in Australia.
Who named the brown fur seal?
The scientific name Arctocephalus pusillus carries the authority (Schreber, 1775), meaning Schreber named it in 1775.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Brown fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-fur-seal
“Brown fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-fur-seal.
@misc{brown_fur_seal_2026,
title = {Brown fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/brown-fur-seal},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}