A. forsteri pups were all weaned by 1 year old and were then totally absent
from the island during the breeding season. The recorded intervals, for three tagged
females, between apparent weaning of one pup and birth of the next were 29, 40,
and 60 days. Some females became infested with barnacles during the period of feeding
at sea prior to parturition. Adult females showed a high degree of fidelity to
specific breeding colonies. Little specific behaviour, other than restlessness, preceded
birth. Five observed births took from 5 sec to 4 min. Pups could swim when born.
Male and female newborn pups weighed 4.41 =0.60 and 4.11 +O.47 kg respectively;
the sex ratio was not significantly different from unity. Pups stayed with their mothers
at a specific location for the first few days, after which the females began to feed at
sea and the pups began to associate with each other. Females had not established
regular patterns of presence and absence in the pupping colony by early February,
but did so by late April. Females did not defend even newborn pups from approaching
humans.
Extreme ecological constraints lead to high degree of individual stereotypy in the vocal repertoire of the Cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus)
