An
eared seal or
otariid or
otary is any member of the
marine mammal family
Otariidae, one of three groupings of
pinnipeds. They comprise 15
extant species in seven
genera (another species became extinct in the 1950s) and are commonly known either as
sea lions or
fur seals, distinct from
true seals (phocids) and the
walrus (odobenids). Otariids are adapted to a semiaquatic lifestyle, feeding and migrating in the water, but breeding and resting on land or ice. They reside in subpolar, temperate, and equatorial waters throughout the
Pacific and
Southern Oceans and the southern
Indian and
Atlantic Oceans. They are conspicuously absent in the north Atlantic.