6U 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 





HARBOR SEALS. 



RARE TROPICAL SEALS. 



THE West Indian seals which were received 

 at t!ic Aquarium in June, 1909, still consti- 

 tute tlie most noteworthy exhibit in the 

 building. 



The possession of three flourishing specimens 

 of a large species near the verge of extinction, 

 is a fact both interesting and important. These 

 seals are the only ones of their kind on exhibi- 

 tion anywhere and may be the last that will ever 

 be seen in captivity. 



In the time of Christopher Columbus, this 

 seal was abundant in many parts of the West 

 Indies, its range extending eastward from Yuca- 

 tan to the Bahamas, Hayti, Cuba and Jamaica. 



It was gradually exterminated for its oil and 

 skin, and is at the present time known to exist 



only on the Triangle and 



Alacran reefs off Yucatan. 

 Tlie West Indian Seal. 



{Monachus tropicalis), is 



closely related to Mona- 

 chus albiventer of t h e 



Mediterranean, the seal of 



the ancients, a living speci- 

 men of which was exhibit- 

 ed at Marseilles in 1907. 



Both species are nearly ex 



terminated and with their 



disappearance the genus 



Monachus will be classcil 



with the extinct animals. 

 The Aquarium seals will 



not live forever, and by 



the time they are gone the 



man with the gun will more 



than likel_v have finished 



off the remnant of the race 



in Yucatan. Our seals 

 have not posed to the best 

 advantage for the jjliotog- 

 r a p h e r , but the jjhoto- 

 graphs reproduced in the 

 present Bulletin, repre- 

 sent so far as we know the 

 only ones in existence of 

 the living animal. 



The photographer li a s 

 been requested to try again, 

 so that the scientist of tlie 

 future may have all possi- 

 b 1 e documentary evidence 

 as to the general appear- 

 ance of the animal in life, 

 and its actual existence as 

 late as the year 1910. 

 These seals, an adult 

 male and two young, are not altogether pleasant 

 as near neighbors, their harsh voices penetrating 

 to every part of the building. The West In- 

 dian seal is, so far as our experience goes, the 

 only member of the Phocidae or earless seals, 

 that uses its voice in captivity. 



The two young seals, a male and a female, 

 have been growing amazingly during the nine 

 montlis of their life in the Aquarium. They 

 take a fair amount of exercise in the pool, but 

 after being fed usually haul out on the platform 

 along with the large male for a nap, all tliree 

 huddling close together. 



Tlie big male amuses himself occasionally by 

 tossing a flipperful of water in the faces of visit- 

 ors, with the same effect as his predecessor (a 



WEST INDIAN SEALS. 



