Volume 23, Plate XX / Mammalia (Mammals)

Pusilla, or Cape Otary

Otaria Pusilla

The Pusilla or Cape Otary is a little seal commonly two and a half to three feet long, with a round depressed head, short snout, long simple black whiskers, straight ears and a soft glossy coat of brownish iron-grey, darker on the head and lighter beneath, the feet black and the nails almost imperceptible. Timid and very sociable, easily familiarised with man, it scratches and cleans itself like a dog and inhabits the Cape of Good Hope.