ZOOLOGICAL 
HARBOR SEALS. 
RARE TROPICAL SEALS. 
Tet West Indian seals which were received 
at the Aquarium in June, 1909, still consti- 
tute the 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 
Alaecran reefs off Yucatan. 
The West Indian Seal, 
(Monachus tropicalis), is 
closely related to Mona- 
chus albiventer of the 
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 classed 
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 likely have finished 
off the remnant of the race 
SOCIETY 
BULLETIN. 
in Yucatan. Our seals 
have not posed to the best 
advantage for the photog- 
rapher, but the photo- 
graphs reproduced in the 
present BULLETIN, repre- 
sent so far as we know the 
only ones in existence of 
the living animal. 
T he photographer has 
been requested to try again, 
so that the scientist of the 
future may have all possi- 
ble 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 
months 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 three 
huddling close together. 
The 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. 
