Cape Cross in Namibia is known mainly as a breeding reserve for thousands of Cape Fur Seals.
Breeding place of the Cape Fur Seals
Cape Cross is a Cape Fur Seal Beach
with an interesting history of a stone cross on the bleak headland -
put up, in 1485, by a Portuguese captain and navigator, Diego Cão.
Cape Cross Seal Colony, in Namibia, is the breeding place of the Cape Fur Seals, which are actually a species of Sea Lion.
Along the Namibian and South African coast there are 24 colonies with a
seal population of about 650 000 animals. About 80 000 to 100 000 seals
inhabit Cape Cross.
Fur Seals are very soft
These Fur Seals are so-named for their thick pelt. Unlike true seals which have only a thin covering of hair, Fur Seals have a thick layer of short soft fur,
which is protected by a layer of longer, harder hair. The top layer
gets wet, the bottom layer stays dry. The bottom layer, as well as the
fat formation under the skin give seals a good isolation against the
cold Benguela current.
Seal pups have been hunted for their jet black pelts
and for the beautiful olive-grey coat which they acquire after
moulting, for centuries. The adult's fur is too coarse to be suitable
for use in the fur industry.
Males have a harem of 5 to 25 females
The male seals can
weigh from 187kg to 360kg and are very territorial whilst looking after
their harem of 5 to 25 females. Cow seals are a lot smaller than bulls,
they only weigh up to 75kg. A few weeks after the bulls have arrived the
pregnant cows come to the colony to have one youngster. The pregnancy lasts for about 8 months. One bull has about 5 to 25 cows in his territory and only 7 days after giving a birth the next rutting season starts.
Most youngsters are born in November / December and they weigh
about 4.5 to 7kg. Their fur is pitch black
and they start sucking on their mother immediately. A few days after
giving birth the mother has to return to the sea to feed. During this
time the youngsters are very vulnerable and are hunted by Jackals and
Hyenas. Youngsters start feeding on fish when they are about 4 to 5
months old. When seal pups are about 7 months old they can stay in the water for up to 4 days.
Observe the Cape Fur Seal colony at Cape Cross, Skeleton Coast,
Namibia - the biggest seal colony on the African coast with over 100,000
seals.
Cape Cross is the largest breeding colony of Cape Fur Seals on the African coast. A sight not to be missed.
The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean
coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the
Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire
Namib Desert coast.
The area's name derives from the whale and seal bones that once littered the shore from the whaling industry, although in modern times the coast harbours the skeletal remains of the shipwrecks caught by offshore rocks and fog.
On the
coast the upwelling of the cold Benguela current gives rise to dense
ocean fogs (called "cassimbo" by the Angolans) for much of the year. The
winds blow from land to sea, rainfall rarely exceeds 10 millimetres
(0.39 in) annually and the climate is highly inhospitable. There is a
constant, heavy surf on the beaches. In the days of human-powered boats
it was possible to get ashore through the surf but impossible to launch
from the shore. The only way out was by going through a marsh hundreds
of miles long and only accessible via a hot and arid desert.
