<h2> Identification of a New Zealand fur seal (<i>Arctocephalus forsteri</i>) bone in a Cook Island archaeological site</h2> <h3> RICHARD WALTER<br> IAN SMITH</h3> <h4> Anthropology Department<br> University of Otago<br> P. O. Box 56<br> Dunedin, New Zealand</h4> <b>Abstract</b> The New Zealand fur seal (<i>Arctocephalus forsteri</i>) is a coastal species today found only in parts of New Zealand and southern Australia. This distribution is in part the product of past human predation, including European sealing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but more importantly Maori hunting before c. 1500 A.D. This paper reports an archaeological find of New Zealand fur seal bone in a 14th century A.D. archaeological site in the tropical Cook Islands. This discovery extends the known historical range of <i>A. forsteri</i> into the tropics and provides further evidence concerning long-term changes in its distribution.<p> <b>Keywords</b> <i>Arctocephalus forsteri</i>; migration; breeding; Cook Islands; Maori<p> <P>Walter & Smith--Identification of a New Zealand fur seal bone

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