This dataset contains range maps for the Northern Fur Sea (Callorhinus ursinus). Northern fur seals are members of the "eared seal" family (Otariidae).

Northern fur seals primarily inhabit two types of habitat: open ocean and rocky or sandy beaches on islands for resting, reproduction, and molting. Adult northern fur seals spend more than 300 days per year (about 80 percent of their time) at sea. During the summer and autumn they intermittently fast while on land and feed at sea. During the winter and spring they are pelagic, occupying the North Pacific Ocean as well as the Bering and Okhotsk Seas. In the open ocean, concentrations of northern fur seals may occur around oceanographic features—such as eddies, convergence-divergence zones, and frontal boundaries—because of the availability of prey in those places (NOAA 2022).

Vector datasets of CWHR range maps are one component of California Wildlife Habitat Relationships (CWHR), a comprehensive information system and predictive model for California's wildlife. The CWHR System was developed to support habitat conservation and management, land use planning, impact assessment, education, and research involving terrestrial vertebrates in California. CWHR contains information on life history, management status, geographic distribution, and habitat relationships for wildlife species known to occur regularly in California. Range maps represent the maximum, current geographic extent of each species within California. They were originally delineated at a scale of 1:5,000,000 by species-level experts and have gradually been revised at a scale of 1:1,000,000. For more information about CWHR, visit the CWHR webpage ( https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Data/CWHR ). The webpage provides links to download CWHR data and user documents such as a look up table of available range maps including species code, species name, and range map revision history; a full set of CWHR GIS data; .pdf files of each range map or species life history accounts; and a User Guide.