It is hard to guess what a New Zealand sea lion weights. But we have the answer:
An adult New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri) on average weights 273.67 kg (603.33 lbs).
The New Zealand sea lion is from the family Otariidae (genus: Phocarctos). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 2.02 meter (6′ 8″). Usually, New Zealand sea lions have 1 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The New Zealand sea lion (Phocarctos hookeri), also known as Hooker’s sea lion, and whakahao in Māori, is a species of sea lion that primarily breeds on New Zealand’s subantarctic Auckland and Campbell islands and to some extent around the coast of New Zealand’s South and Stewart islands. The New Zealand sea lion numbers around 10,000 and is perhaps the world’s rarest sea lion species. They are the only species of the genus Phocarctos.
Animals of the same family as a New Zealand sea lion
We found other animals of the Otariidae family:
- Galápagos fur seal bringing 39.47 kilos (87.02 lbs) to the scale
- Antarctic fur seal bringing 96.6 kilos (212.97 lbs) to the scale
- South American sea lion bringing 194 kilos (427.7 lbs) to the scale
- Brown fur seal bringing 178.75 kilos (394.08 lbs) to the scale
- South American sea lion bringing 193.67 kilos (426.97 lbs) to the scale
- Australian sea lion bringing 189.14 kilos (416.98 lbs) to the scale
- South American fur seal bringing 68.14 kilos (150.22 lbs) to the scale
- Arctocephalus forsteri bringing 101.13 kilos (222.95 lbs) to the scale
- Juan Fernández fur seal bringing 95 kilos (209.44 lbs) to the scale
- Subantarctic fur seal bringing 92.21 kilos (203.29 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a New Zealand sea lion
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Phocarctos hookeri:
- Onager with a weight of 235.62 kilos (519.45 lbs)
- Burchell’s zebra with a weight of 278.08 kilos (613.06 lbs)
- Malayan tapir with a weight of 309.61 kilos (682.57 lbs)
- Baird’s tapir with a weight of 292.39 kilos (644.61 lbs)
- Tamaraw with a weight of 252.7 kilos (557.11 lbs)
- Common bottlenose dolphin with a weight of 281.02 kilos (619.54 lbs)
- Dugong with a weight of 295 kilos (650.36 lbs)
- Takin with a weight of 292.76 kilos (645.42 lbs)
- Hawaiian monk seal with a weight of 223 kilos (491.63 lbs)
- Pygmy hippopotamus with a weight of 231 kilos (509.27 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a New Zealand sea lion
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as New Zealand sea lion:
- Northern fur seal with a size of 1.74 meter (5′ 9″)
- Hartebeest with a size of 1.98 meter (6′ 6″)
- Tiger with a size of 1.83 meter (6′ 0″)
- Spotted seal with a size of 1.64 meter (5′ 5″)
- Giant forest hog with a size of 2.03 meter (6′ 8″)
- Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin with a size of 2.37 meter (7′ 10″)
- Baird’s tapir with a size of 2.2 meter (7′ 3″)
- Guadalupe fur seal with a size of 1.71 meter (5′ 8″)
- Dwarf sperm whale with a size of 2.16 meter (7′ 1″)
- Dall’s porpoise with a size of 1.97 meter (6′ 6″)
Animals with the same litter size as a New Zealand sea lion
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a New Zealand sea lion: