40 Fun Facts About Hawaiian Monk Seal

Which animal have NOAA teams had to pull out of the noses of several young Hawaiian monk seals?

An eel dangling from a nostril has been seen a handful of times, and every seal was caught and freed unharmed. One theory is that a cornered eel bolts into the nose while the seal roots around the reef.

The Hawaiian name for the Hawaiian monk seal describes which animal "that runs in rough water"?

A dog that runs in rough water is the meaning of ʻīlio holo i ka uaua. Native Hawaiians coined the name for an animal that had reached the islands millions of years before people did.

A deadly parasite that threatens Hawaiian monk seals spreads through the droppings of which animals?

Cats are the only animals in which the toxoplasmosis parasite produces its eggs, which wash from their droppings into the sea. Keeping pets indoors is one of the simplest ways to protect seals.

Which color can a Hawaiian monk seal's fur turn after it has spent a long spell at sea?

Green fur comes from algae growing on the coat, a sign the seal has gone a long time since its yearly molt, when it sheds the old coat and comes out silvery again.

What does a Hawaiian monk seal mother go without for the whole time she is nursing her pup?

Food is off the menu because she never leaves her pup to hunt, living on her own fat until weaning. Then she swims off for good, and the pup has to teach itself to hunt.

Hawaiian monk seals are said to be named for skin folds that resemble which part of a monk's clothing?

The hood, or cowl, is one popular story: the naturalist who suggested the name thought a seal seen from behind looked like a monk in a cape and hood.

A Hawaiian monk seal on a deep dive can hold its breath for up to roughly how long?

20 minutes is the limit, but a typical hunting trip to the seabed and back lasts only about six.

Hawaiian monk seals mostly sleep on beaches, but where else do they sometimes take a nap?

Underwater caves are an occasional bedroom, but most sleep happens on the sand, where a seal may stay put for days at a time.

Besides the Hawaiian monk seal, the only other mammal found in Hawaii and nowhere else is what kind of animal?

A bat, the Hawaiian hoary bat, is the islands' only native land mammal. It became the state land mammal in 2015, seven years after the seal was named Hawaii's official state mammal.

Hawaiian monk seal pups are born with fur of which color, which they shed by the time they are weaned?

Black fur lasts only a few weeks on a newborn, and by weaning the pup has molted into a silvery-gray coat.

At sea and on the beach, how do Hawaiian monk seals spend most of their lives?

Mostly alone is the rule, unlike sea lions that crowd into colonies: even when a few seals rest on one beach, they usually lie too far apart to touch.

What do biologists call it when a Hawaiian monk seal leaves the sea to rest on a beach?

Hauling out is normal, healthy behavior, and a seal lying very still on the sand is almost always resting, not stranded or hurt.

NOAA's "rule of thumb" says you are far enough from a Hawaiian monk seal when your thumb does what?

Hides the whole animal is the test: give a thumbs-up at arm's length, and if the seal vanishes behind it you are about 50 feet away. For a mother with a pup, triple that distance.

In 2017 a Hawaiian monk seal named Rocky drew crowds by giving birth on which famous tourist beach?

Waikiki had never recorded a monk seal birth before Rocky's pup, named Kaimana, arrived just ahead of a busy Fourth of July weekend.

The Hawaiian monk seal's closest relative, declared extinct in 2008, once lived in which sea?

The Caribbean monk seal was last seen in 1952 between Jamaica and Nicaragua. It showed little fear of people, which made it easy for hunters to kill, beginning with Columbus's crew in 1494.

What playful word describes the way a Hawaiian monk seal crawls on its belly across the sand?

Galumphing is how true seals get around on land, because their short front flippers cannot prop them up to walk the way a sea lion does.

As a "true seal", the Hawaiian monk seal lacks which body part that sea lions and fur seals have?

Ear flaps are missing on every true seal, which hears through small holes in the sides of its head, while sea lions have visible outer ears.

Hawaiian monk seals have one of the highest recorded rates of which hazard of any seal or sea lion?

Debris entanglement, mostly in lost fishing nets, hits pups and juveniles hardest. Crews have hauled more than 900 metric tons of marine debris out of the seals' remote home waters.

How do foraging Hawaiian monk seals often get at prey that is hiding on the reef?

Flipping rocks over with the nose exposes hidden prey, and sharks and large predatory fish sometimes trail a hunting seal to snatch whatever it flushes out.

Ke Kai Ola, the only hospital devoted to Hawaiian monk seals, has a Hawaiian name that means what?

The Healing Sea opened in 2014 and feeds up thin or sick seals, many of them pups, before returning them to the wild.

Which US president created the 1909 island reserve that took in the Hawaiian monk seal's remote home?

Theodore Roosevelt created the Hawaiian Islands Reservation, which later became a national wildlife refuge and then part of one of the largest protected areas on Earth.

Which president created the marine monument where most Hawaiian monk seals live after seeing a Cousteau film?

George W. Bush watched the documentary Voyage to Kure at the White House in 2006 and created the monument two months later. Barack Obama more than quadrupled its size in 2016.

Ke Kai Ola, the hospital for sick and injured Hawaiian monk seals, is in which Hawaiian town?

Kona, on the Big Island, hosts the hospital, which was built and is run by the Marine Mammal Center, a rescue group based in Sausalito, California.

Hawaiian monk seals were the first wild marine mammals protected by a routine program of what?

Vaccination against morbillivirus, a relative of distemper, began in 2016 because one outbreak could sweep through so small a population. Crews deliver the dose with a syringe on a pole.

Which type of seal shares the Hawaiian monk seal's "catastrophic molt" of fur and skin each year?

Elephant seals sit on the same branch of the seal family, and both shed the top layer of skin along with the fur. A Hawaiian monk seal stays ashore for about 10 days at the peak.

Which kind of shark learned to snatch Hawaiian monk seal pups in the shallows at French Frigate Shoals?

Galapagos sharks, only a small number of them, took up the unusual habit in the late 1990s, so NOAA began moving newly weaned pups to safer islets.

Which privately owned island, nicknamed the Forbidden Isle, has become a haven for Hawaiian monk seals?

Niihau is closed to most outsiders, and its quiet shores draw seals in high numbers. None were present when its owners' family bought the island in 1864.

The Hawaiian monk seal's ancestors likely swam through a seaway that once separated which two continents?

North and South America were split by the Central American Seaway until the Isthmus of Panama rose about 3 million years ago, closing the seals' route between oceans.

Which US military service has transported dozens of Hawaiian monk seals between islands for rescue teams?

The Coast Guard answered more than 50 requests to carry seals between islands from 2008 to 2019, help that NOAA values at over $450,000.

The "schauinslandi" in the Hawaiian monk seal's scientific name honors a zoologist from which country?

Germany was home to Hugo Schauinsland, who found a seal skull on a remote Hawaiian island in the 1890s. The species was later named in his honor.

What do biologists call it when a group of male Hawaiian monk seals gangs up on a single female?

Mobbing happens where males outnumber females, and it can badly injure the female. Removing the most aggressive males from a beach appears to be an effective fix.

Which kind of fishing hook are anglers in Hawaii urged to use to protect Hawaiian monk seals?

Barbless hooks are promoted by a joint state and federal project, and with good reason: NOAA has logged more than 300 hookings of seals around the main islands since 1976.

Female Hawaiian monk seals have sometimes been seen doing what for pups that are not their own?

Fostering them means raising another seal's pup, and mothers sometimes swap pups altogether. Rescuers step in when a switch puts a pup at risk.

Where does mating take place among adult Hawaiian monk seals?

In the water is where mating happens, and the female later comes ashore to have a single pup, usually on a sheltered sandy beach ringed by shallows.

The skull that gave the Hawaiian monk seal its scientific name was collected on which remote island?

Laysan is also where rabbits released in the guano-mining era stripped the island bare, wiping out several of its unique plants and birds before the last were removed in 1923.

The only Hawaiian monk seal birth recorded outside Hawaii happened at which remote Pacific atoll?

Johnston Atoll lies more than 800 miles southwest of Hawaii, and seals turn up there only rarely.

Which 2018 hurricane washed away most of East Island, a key pupping beach for Hawaiian monk seals?

Walaka, which had peaked as a Category 5 storm, struck French Frigate Shoals that October. Sand has drifted back since, and by 2024 seals and nesting turtles had returned in significant numbers.

Where on a Hawaiian monk seal's body do researchers attach the numbered tags used to identify it?

Hind flippers each carry a tag with consecutive numbers, so a seal can still be identified if one falls off, and the tag color shows where it was first tagged.

Roughly how deep can a Hawaiian monk seal hunting on deep reefs dive?

Dives of more than 1,800 feet have been recorded, but a typical hunting dive reaches the seafloor less than 200 feet down.

After just a few weeks of nursing, a Hawaiian monk seal pup has grown to roughly what weight?

200 pounds is a roughly sixfold gain on a birth weight of about 30, all of it built on fat-rich milk.