The diet of this marine mammal consists mainly of fish. Some seals can dive as deep as 600 feet in search of food. Aside from the existence of external ears, eared seals differ from earless seals in that they can bring their rear flippers forward under their bodies. This makes them more mobile on land than earless seals. In the water, both eared and earless seals move with a rowing motions of the front flippers, not using their rear flippers at all.
Fur seals grow a thick undercoat of fur, used as insulation.
In one species of fur seal, over 50,000 hairs were counted in one square centimeter of skin. This thick undercoat of fur has made the fur seal very appealing to hunters. Of the five species of sea lion, the California sea lion is the best known. Because they are relatively small, and the most graceful on land of all the seals, California sea lions are the seals most likely to be used in circus acts or kept in zoos.