Mediterranean Monk Seal

 

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Classification:

Global Population

Description and Natural History

Physical Description
Adult male Mediterranean monk seals average 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) in length and weigh approximately 315 kilograms (694 pounds). Females are slightly smaller, weighing approximately 300 kilograms (661 pounds).

Adults are generally brown or gray on the back and lighter on the belly with a white patch on the underside of the belly. Other irregular light patches are not uncommon. Older males tend to be black.

Pups are born with a white or yellow patch on the belly of the otherwise black, woolly coat. They are 88 to 103 centimeters (2.8 - 3.4 feet) in length and weigh 16-18 kilograms (35 - 40 pounds).

Natural History
Historically, the Mediterranean monk seal occupied a wide geographical range with colonies throughout the Mediterranean, Marmara and Black seas. Monk seals were also found along the Atlantic coast of Africa, as far south as Mauritania, Senegal and the Gambia, and on the Atlantic islands of Cape Verde, Madeira, the Canaries and the Azores.

Today the monk seal survives in only a portion of its original range. During the 20th century, the monk seal was extirpated from mainland France and Corsica, Spain and the Balearic Islands, Italy, Sicily and the Toscana archipelago, and Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Tunisia.

It is also thought to be on the brink of extinction in the Marmara and Black seas, the Adriatic coast islands of Croatia, and most probably from Sardinia as well. The remaining monk seals exist in only two populations, one in the eastern Mediterranean and the other in the Northeast Atlantic off the coast of Northwest Africa.

Due to habitat exclusion caused by human encroachment, females now pup only in caves in remote and relatively undisturbed areas. Males and females are thought to reach sexual maturity between five and six years of age, although some females may mature as early as age four. Pups are born through much of the year, although peak pupping occurs in September and October.

Monk seal pups can swim and dive at about two weeks of age and are weaned at about 16-17 weeks. Monk seals are thought to forage in nearshore waters for fish and octopus. Individuals may live for 20 - 30 years in the wild.

Today only about 300 to 500 individuals remain.

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Status of the Species

Status
Listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) and on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Threats to the Species
The Mediterranean monk seal is threatened by deliberate killings (fishers still consider the species a pest and a competitor for increasingly scarce resources); incidental capture in fishing gear; decreased food availability; destruction of habitat; and pollution.

Because the Mediterranean monk seal is sensitive to human disturbance, continued development of once isolated habitat has had a significant impact on the already fragmented and declining species. Pups are also susceptible to inclement weather in their birth caves, and may be washed away and drowned during storms. Captive breeding programs have been initiated and abandoned, and discussions about them have arisen again.

Other threats to the species include disease and toxic algae. In the summer of 1997, two-thirds of the largest surviving population of Mediterranean monk seals was wiped out within the space of two months on the Côte des Phoques in the Western Sahara.

International Trade
No legal trade

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Authors and Sources

Sources
CITES. 2001. http://www.cites.org

IUCN. 2001. The 2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. http://www.redlist.org

International Marine Mammal Association. 2000. http://@Monachus.org

Reijnders, P. S. Brasseur, J. van der Toorn, P. van der Wolf, I. Boyd, J. Harwood, D. Lavigne and L. Lowry. 1993. Status Survey and Conservation Actioan Plan: seals, fur seals, sea lions, and walrus. IUCN/SSC Seal Specialist Group. 88pp.

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