What Is a Steller Sea Lion?

The Steller sea lion is the largest of all sea lions. It belongs to the same family as the California sea lion, which is commonly used in aquatic shows. The species is not as easy to train as its Californian cousin, and it is hunted by native peoples in its home range. The natives use the Steller sea lion for food and skins that are made into boat coverings and clothes. This sea lion is named for Georg Wilhelm Steller, who studied and classified it; it sometimes is called Steller's sea lion.

  1. Description

    • Male Steller sea lions grow to 9.25 feet in length and up to 1.2 tons in weight. Females reach just over 7 feet in length and around 600 lbs. The animal has a yellowish-buff coloring with a short, single-layer covering of fur. Its flippers are long, and like other sea lions it can roll its flippers underneath its body to aid movement on land. Its close relatives, seals, cannot do this.

    Habitat and Range

    • The Steller sea lion lives along much of the coastline of the northern Pacific, from Japan to California. It spends a great deal of time in the water and prefers the colder oceanic regions to warmer areas. Outside of the breeding season the animals are found in small numbers relaxing on beaches within their range. During the breeding season, the sea lions are found in large colonies that are tightly crammed onto a beach. So many sea lions are in these colonies that the beach completely disappears from view.

    Diet and Predators

    • The Steller sea lion is entirely carnivorous and feeds on a wide array of fish, such as pollack, and on octopus, squid and crustaceans. In rare cases the animals also feed on smaller species of seal, such as the northern fur seal. All of the animal's food is caught while swimming in the ocean. Because of its size, the predators of the species are among the largest in the oceans, and they include the killer whale and the great white shark.

    Life Cycle

    • Adult males establish and defend areas of the breeding beach and mate with all the females in that section. The largest and strongest males are the ones who get to breed and have harems of females that range from three to 20. Females become sexually mature at 3 to 7 years old. So do males, but because mating is based on territory, males don't mate until 9 or 10 years old.

      Each female produces a single pup after a 12-month pregnancy. The female is the sole caregiver for her pup. In the wild, females live for 30 years; the males, mostly because of violent competition, usually live 18 years.