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A Juan Fernández Fur Seal (Arctocephalus philippii, Peters, 1866) in the Galápagos Islands: Insights from the First Anecdotal Observation in the Last Century

Abstract:

The Juan Fernández fur seal (Arctocephalus philippii) is a pinniped species endemic to Chile, inhabiting the Juan Fernández Archipelago (i.e., Robinson Crusoe, Santa Clara, and Alejandro Selkirk Islands) and Desventuradas Islands (i.e., San Félix and San Ambrosio Islands) (Aurioles-Gamboa, 2015; Osman & Moreno, 2017; Aurioles-Gamboa & Trillmich, 2018). This species recently has been observed and recorded in marine and coastal regions outside its normal distribution range along the southeastern tropical Pacific (Table 1). The vagrant behaviour and occasional presence of this fur seal species have been observed along the Pacific coast of South America and oceanic islands, including Colombia, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, Perú, and on Chile’s mainland coast, as reported elsewhere (Majluf & Reyes, 1989; Merlen, 1995; Reeves et al., 2002; Alava & Salazar, 2006; Avila et al., 2014; Aurioles-Gamboa, 2015; Jefferson et al., 2015; Alava & Aurioles-Gamboa, 2017; Aurioles-Gamboa & Trillmich, 2018; Páez-Rosas et al., 2020; Alava et al., 2021).