| Gregarious, the Cape fur seals (Artocephalus pusillus pusillus) gather into colonies on the coast to mate and give birth. More comfortable in the water than on land, these semi-aquatic mammals spend most of their time scouring the coastal waters looking for food: fish, squid and shellfish. This subspecies only meet on the southern coasts of Africa between Cape Fria north of Namibia and Algoa Bay east of Port Elizabeth in the Republic of South Africa and number almost a million. Although they are classed in annex II of the Convention concerning international trade of wild species of fauna and flora threatened by extinction, the Cape fur seals are commercially hunted in Namibia. Every year tens of thousand of young and thousands of adults are killed. Another subspecies (Artocephalus pusillus doriferus) live on the southern coasts of Australia. The sea-lion family includes 16 species in all, called fur seals or sea lions.
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