5. 
4 . 
Many birds were seen emerging from empty shearwater burrows, 
particularly males. I believe this to be just general exploration 
of potential nesting territory. 
HAWAIIAN MONK SEAL - 
On April 29, a female gave birth to one pup. Although 
we did not see this actual act of parturition, the umbilisms 
were still attached to both animals and what appeared to be 
the placenta was on the sand nextyto the animals. The pups eyes 
were still shut. Later on in the day we came across another 
pup with the umbilicus still attached and fresh but with its 
eyes open. I believe this pup was born not more than 36 hours 
before. 
Females with young tend to loosely congregate and were 
all found on the west . Several females with young had 
not moved from the bedding places in the Scaevola for distances 
of 30 to 40 feet in one 24-hour period. They had not moved 
towards the water during this time. The females with elder 
pups (over 2 to 3 days) were very pugnacious and protective, 
attempting to attack intruders, while ones with apparently 
new born pups laid at the waters edge and were not nearly as 
defensive. 
On one occasion, 2 males had a prolonged battle in the 
shallow reef waters, with a female on the beach apparently 
being the object of concern. On April 30, we saw a male 
protecting 1 female against the approach of another male and 
chasing the intruder into the surf. He also threatened us 
when we approached the female. We also saw a small male (about 
l/2 the size of the female) threaten us as we approached the 
female. Apparently there are no harems formed by the males of 
this species. 
On overcast days, all seals seen had crawled up the beach 
along to the edge and into the Sc aevola and spent the day (and 
all night as far as we could discern) sleeping. There was a 
minimal amount of activity such as swimming or fighting at 
these times. When the sun shone brightly and the temperature 
rose considerably, there was general activity by both sexes 
throughout the day with constant patrolling of the beaches 
and short underwater fights whenever males sighted each other. 
Apparently the hot sun caused a certain amount of discomfort 
as the animals rarely moved more than 50 feet up the beach 
from the waters edge, which in itself caused an uncomfortable 
amount of exertion as the average lunging "step" of the seal 
in forward movement was only 6 to 8 inches. After a series 
of 15 to 20 lunges, the animal would stop and rest for 2 to 5 
minutes before continuing. 
• '-r ’ ; 
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