- Historic Sites “The Seals Are About Gone…” The crusading
conservationist thought he had saved the fur seal from
extinction. Then from the Pribilofs, home of the last great
herd, came an alarming telegram: June 1963 | Volume 14, Issue 4
Unlike the bulls, the cows went frequently from the rookery into
the water to bathe and to feed, their search for food taking
them long distances, for absences of two or three days,
sometimes longer. To Elliott, one fat, round-eyed pup left
bleating in the rookery looked like any other, but a nursing
mother returning from a foray recognized the cry of her young,
though ten thousand pups were chorusing at once. She would
suckle no other; if she did not return, her pup starved. The
new-born pups could not swim. Elliott noted that they never even
ventured into puddles on the rocks until they were five or six
weeks old. After that they cautiously experimented in the wash
of the surf, and gradually, as the season progressed, they
became expert swimmers, unafraid of the roughest su