The marine Carnivora belong to the section Pinnipedia--literally “fin-footed”--so termed because the limbs are modified into flippers.
When New Zealand was discovered by Europeans seals were extraordinarily abundant on the coasts, but they shared the fate of similar unprotected animals in other parts of the world. Their fur and oil were valuable and were easily obtained, and the animals were slaughtered so mercilessly that they were nearly exterminated. Only one species, the fur-seal (_Arctocephalus forsteri_), occurred commonly on the shores of the three main islands of New Zealand, though the sea-leopard (_Ogmorhinus leptonyx_) was an occasional visitor. As these animals are now protected, a few stray ones still come inshore, but they are somewhat rare visitors.
Before referring at length to the fur-seal I may with advantage quote what Sir James Hector had to say about other species in a report he prepared for the Minister of Marine in 1892. He states that the hair-seal, or sea-lion (_Eumetopias hookeri_), used to take up its station on the west coast of the South Island about December. The animals are polygamous, and the males are enormously larger than the females. The males arrive first. “Soon afterwards the cow seals appear, and on landing give birth to the young, each male securing a harem of ten to twenty cows, and protecting the mothers and young pups. The rutting season is in January, after which the males (or lions) leave the mothers to bring up the young until May, when they all leave the coast for the winter. The mode of life of the hair-seals has, however, been much altered since 1863, when I made my first observations, and I believe that the New Zealand hair-seals have now become much more solitary, and that they will soon become extinct.”
When I was in the extreme south of Stewart Island in 1874 I found the tracks of these animals in the scrub close to the water’s edge, though I did not meet with the sea-lions themselves. I have not heard of one being seen for many a long day.
Speaking of the sea-leopard, Hector wrote as follows: “This is common round the New Zealand coast, but is a solitary animal. They frequently come on shore, and, notwithstanding their feeble powers of locomotion, they scramble far back into the bush in flat country, and occasionally ascend rivers for a long distance. For instance, one of the seals ascended the Waikato River a few years ago as far as Hamilton, and was claimed by the Maoris as being a real _taniwha_.”