The Kekeno (NZ Fur Seal)
The Kekeno is a type of fur seal that lives in New Zealand.
They have dark-grey fur, and white whiskers. Their size is smaller than the Australian fur seal.
You can find Kekeno on beaches along the coastline of New Zealand, and you can also find them in Stewart Island.
What do They Eat?
Kekeno eat mainly squid, octopus and mid-water fish, sometimes eating larger species, such as Conger eels, Barracuda, Jack Mackerel and Hoki. They also occasionally eat even birds, such as Penguins and Shearwater.
What are the Predators to the Kekeno?
The predators of Kekeno’s known predators are Orca (Killer Whales), Sharks, male Sea Lions, and Leopard Seals. Leopard seals mainly target pups.
Were the Kekeno any Help to the Early Maori?
The early maori killed fur seals for their fur, and meat. They used the fur The Maori name for fur seal is “Kekeno” which means “look around.”
Do Kekeno have ears?
Eared seals include NZ fur seals and NZ sea lions. They have external ears, which means you can’t see them from the outside.
How do Kekeno Mate?
The female fur seal (cow) gives birth during a breeding season, then mate again just a few days later. The following year they will return and give birth to a single pup after a nearly year long pregnancy, and mate once again to continue the cycle.
What is the baby Kekeno called?
The baby Kekeno is called a pup.
When will Kekeno go extinct?
They have banned hunting for fur seals for over 15 years now, but still they seem to be disappearing, if we don’t stop disobeying the rules of the community they will disappear very soon and quickly.
Are Kekeno hostile?
If you annoy, or try to harm them. They are also hostile if you get too close to their pups.
What is the scientific name of Kekeno?
The scientific name for Kekeno is Arctocephalus forsteri.
Kekeno were killed by the early Maori for their meat and their fur. We showed this is in our art project.
For our art project we chose a college, because we thought it would be too hard in a diorama or a model to show a maori man killing a fur seal.
We thought that a poster would be too easy, and it wouldn’t look like we put much effort into it. We also wanted the layering effect that a college has.
Here is a picture of our finished art:
The first thing we did was make all of the little bits that we glued on. Including: The sun, mountains, waterfall, river, rocks, palm tree, dolphin, the maori man, and the fur seal.
We painted the background a sunset and the mountains a mint-green with dark green specks.
Then we glued on the mountains with PVA glue, which was a challenge as the cardboard did not want to stick down. But finally, after a lot of pressing, and sticky hands, it glued on and started drying.
We positioned the sun to be between the mountains, where a sun in a sunset would be, then glued it down. This was easier than the mountains because it was paper and not cardboard.
We glued down the river, which was also hard because it was cardboard.
We glued down the rocks, which the maori man was standing on. We slipped the palm tree behind the rocks, and glued that down too.
We proceeded to glue down the waterfall, rocks around the waterfall, dolphin, and the fur seal. When we glued down the maori man it was very hard even though it was paper. He was so slim it was hard to glue him down, and we accidentally decapitated him! Luckily, we glued the head back on, and it looked like nothing happened.
As the last finishing touches, we wrote facts on little blue clouds and glued those on the sky.
We let it set overnight and it looks great!
Written by Lillian, Claudia and Daphne.
