HAWAIIAN MONK SEAL 



The monk seals are the only warm-water seals in the world. There are 

 three populations, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Hawaiian, all of them 

 representing "relict" species on the border of extinction. In 1951 the total 

 population of Hawaiian monk seals was estimated at less than 500, as con- 

 trasted with that of a century earlier when a single vessel brought 1, 500 monk- 

 seal skins into the port of Honolulu. In 1954, P. A. Du Mont and J. A. Neff 

 counted 334 monk seals in the western Hawaiian area. The count was made 

 from the air and on foot and is minimal. 



Description 



Both sexes attain a length of about 7-1/2 feet, and an estimated weight of 

 500 pounds. The weight of the newborn pup is unrecorded; the length is about 

 3 feet. The color of the adult male is dark brown or dark slaty brown above, 

 shading to a white or soiled yellowish white on the belly. The female is paler; 

 the newborn pup has a jet black, soft, woolly coat. The voice of the adult is 

 an abrupt bark. 



Range 



Breeding on Laysan, Lisianski, Midway, and Ocean Islands, Pearl and 

 Hermes Reef; rarely straggling to as far east as the main island of Hawaii. 

 The largest group seen in 1951 was 180 on Pearl and Hermes Reef„ Monk 

 seals haul out on the white coral-sand beaches and can be closely approached 

 at times. 



Breeding habits 



Scattered accounts indicate that the pup may be born any time from late 

 December to the middle of March. Twenty "glossy black little fellows" were 

 reported on 15 March at a rookery comprising fewer than 60 seals. A nursing 

 pup about 3 feet long which had shed its puppy coat was captured on 14 May, 

 A photograph taken on 28 June of a pup following its mother suggests a long 

 period of attachment to the parent. Quite possibly the breeding season of these 

 tropical seals is prolonged, differing from that of seals of northern waters 

 where summer is brief and clearly defined. (Full-term and newborn Caribbean 

 monk seals have been found as early as the first of December.) 



Feeding habits 

 Unknown. 



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