Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina)

About Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina)

• Kingdom: Animals
• Phylum: Chordates
• Class: Mammals
• Order: Carnivorans
• Family: Phocidae

In the 18th and 19th centuries southern elephant seals were hunted extensively for their fur for clothing, and oil for mechanical lubrication (2) (6), and a large-scale sealing industry continued in South Georgia until 1964 under a management scheme (4) (6). This exploitation resulted in many populations declining, which recovered after the cessation of such activities (6), however, since the 1950s and 1960s, numbers of the southern elephant seal have again decreased significantly (2). Reasons for this decline are unclear, but it is thought to be due to changes in distribution and abundance of the seal's prey (2). There is some concern that large-scale fisheries may be competing with the elephant seals for their preferred prey (2).
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