The Mediterranean monk seal is making a comeback

The Mediterranean monk seal begins its life in a cave. Even after it grows up to hunt and mate in open water, the seal sticks to its monastic ways. The only species of seal in the Mediterranean region, these reclusive creatures are among the rarest marine animals in the world, with a population of around 800. About half can be found in Greek waters, where an island or inlet could hold only a few. monk seals.

Their ancestors were much more social. In The odyssey, Homer described monk seals huddling together like a herd of sheep. The first-century Roman scholar Pliny the Elder wrote that seals could be trained “to greet the public with their voice and at the same time with bowing.” When Alsatian naturalist Johann Hermann named the species “monk seal” in 1779, he was thinking less of the animal’s behavior than of its appearance, noting: “Its smooth round head resembled a human head covered by a hood.”

After centuries of being hunted for pelts and oil, monk seals became skittish and rare. Until recently, the biggest threats were from fishermen who viewed the seals as competitors or nuisances. “They went around the village saying, ‘Today I killed a seal,’” says Dimitris Tsiakalos, coordinator of the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal, a nonprofit organization known as Motherafter the Latin name of the species, A monk is a monk. “This was something that all fishermen used to do.”

Such routine killings have become much less common since the late 1980s, when MOm began his work. The group mounts cameras in the caves where the pups are born and records sightings of civilians. When someone calls them to report an orphaned puppy, MOm’s staff members arrive and take the puppy to their rehab center in Athens. After a few months of care, volunteers load the pups onto boats and release them to remote locations, where the seals’ swimming and hunting instincts kick in immediately. By then, the puppies are around 120 pounds or more, making them difficult to lift. “But they are quite cooperative,” Tsiakalos notes fondly. “They’re not trying to bite you.”

In recent years, Mediterranean monk seals have recovered enough for the International Union for Conservation of Nature to upgrade their status from “critically endangered” to “endangered”. They are returning to places like Croatia and Albania, where they have been absent for a long time. On the Greek island of Samos, a seal named Argyro grew comfortable enough among the crowd to recline in beach chairs and hang out in a cafe alongside men playing backgammon. argyro was Shooting in 2017, a sign that some still view seals as a nuisance. But his death sparked outrage across Greece, showing just how much old attitudes have changed.

Tsiakalos was encouraged when Mom got a call from a fisherman who had found a seal stranded in a storm and stayed up all night to keep it warm. “A fisherman!” emphasizes Tsiakalos. “There has been a real change in mindset. And that’s why seals aren’t so afraid of people anymore.”