South American Fur Seal: Arctocephalus australis

South American fur seals are sexually dimorphic and widely distributed along the coast of South America. In the past, two subspecies were recognized: Arctocephalus australis australis (Zimmerman, 1783) for the Falkland subpopulation and A. a. gracilis (Nehring, 1887) for the mainland subpopulation. Recently, fur seals in Peru and northern Chile have been assigned to an as yet unnamed subspecies. Based on morphological, genetic, and distributional evidence, some think that A. a. gracilis should be treated as a junior synonym of A. a. australis.