Japanese sea lion
| Japanese sea lion | ||||||||||||
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Stuffed specimen in Tennōji Zoo, Osaka , Japan. |
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| Zalophus japonicus | ||||||||||||
| ( Peters , 1866) |
The Japanese sea lion ( Zalophus japonicus ) is an extinct Pacific eared seal .
distribution
The Japanese sea lion was found in the Sea of Japan on the east coast of Korea , the west and east coast of Japan, around the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin on the southern coast of the Russian Far East and on the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Sea of Okhotsk and near the northern Ryūkyū -Islands before.
features
The Japanese sea lion was very similar to its close relative, the California sea lion ( Zalophus californianus ). Males were dark gray to dark brown, were 2.30 to 2.50 meters long and weighed between 450 and 560 kg. This made them slightly larger than the males of the California sea lions. Old males got an almost black coat. Females remained significantly smaller with a length of 1.40 to 1.64 m. They were colored lighter.
Way of life
Japanese sea lions lived close to the coast and were rarely found on the open sea further than 10 miles from the nearest coast. To reproduce, they sought out flat, sandy stretches of coast.
Systematics
The Japanese sea lion has long been classified as a subspecies Zalophus californianus japonicus of the California sea lion. Only investigations of the skull morphology in 2003 spoke for the species status. The skull of the Japanese sea lion is larger and broader than that of its Californian relative; it had six other teeth behind the upper canine teeth, while the californian sea lion has only five. The classification as an independent species was later confirmed by genetic analyzes.
die out
The main reason the Japanese Sea Lions go extinct is because of their hunting and persecution by fishermen. In the middle of the 19th century, the population is said to have been between 30,000 and 50,000 specimens. Despite an extensive search for the animals in their original habitat, there have been no documented sightings since the late 1950s. The last credible reports of 50 to 60 specimens on the Liancourt Rocks are from 1951. Individual sightings from the 1970s could not be confirmed and may be based on confusion with escaped specimens of the California sea lions.
literature
- Edwin Antonius: Lexicon of extinct birds and mammals. Natur und Tier Verlag, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-931587-76-2 .
Web links
- Zalophus japonicus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: Aurioles, D. & Trillmich, F. (IUCN SSC Pinniped Specialist Group), 2008. Accessed July 12, 2011th
- The Sixth Extinction Website: Zalophus japonicus