Monk Seal Monday #210: Pup Predictions

Q: Where does a 600-pound Hawaiian monk seal give birth?

A: Anywhere she wants.

And so it goes with trying to predict pupping events on Kauai each year. Some seals are predictable. Some are not. Some years, females return to their natal site to give birth. Some years, they don’t. Some years, reproductive females give birth. Some years, they take a break. That said, biologists continue to make predictions, and here are those predictions for a few of the somewhat regular Hawaiian monk seal mothers on Kauai. And, then, seemingly out of the blue, someone new will show up, say, a first-time mom. Or not.

RF30	4/3/24
RH92	5/11/24
R400	7/21/24
RK28	~7/30/2024
RB00	7/18/24
RH58	6/16/24

While Hawaiian monks seal will give birth any month of the year, the tendency is spring and summer. The gestation period is 10 to 11 months. Typically, a female Hawaiian monk seal only carries one pup at a time, but on the very rare occasion, twins have been recorded. A breeding female can give birth year after year after year, but it’s common for her to take off a year every now and then, too. 

Photographs are helpful in monitoring a Hawaiian monk seal’s health. If you see any Hawaiian monk seal anywhere on Kauai, please photograph them (from a distance and without disturbing them) and forward photos to kauaiseals@gmail.com.

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Monk Seal Monday #197: Pupping Update

This year’s pupping season is turning out to be one of surprises. The mothers of the first two pups of the year—RH92 and RF30—didn’t even make the list of pupping predictions (below) for 2023. 

Here’s who did make the pupping predictions shared earlier this spring:

RB00	Kauai	6/11
R400	Kauai	7/11
RK28	Kauai	9/10
RH58	Kauai / Oahu	7/25

Starting at the bottom, turns out, RH58, also known as Rocky, either, wasn’t ever pregnant or lost the pregnancy early in her term. She’s currently still reported to be hauling out around Oahu.

Then, R400, who in prior years gave birth on a west side beach, switched things up by pupping on a north shore beach.

RB00, who spends most of her adult life around Hawaii Island, also switched up her pupping site this year. Instead of a north shore beach on Kauai’i, where she’d pupped for four straight years, this summer, she gave birth to a male on Lāna’i. (Click here to read more in Lāna’i Today.

That leaves RK28 whose estimated pupping date was yesterday. She was last reported two weeks ago at a north shore beach. But like these others mothers, she’s pupped around—on Kauai every year since 2018 but also Oahu and Niihau. And like RH58, she’s also an older monk seal, easily a minimum of 24 years old. She’s birthed eight known pups, but there have likely been others, too.

Here’s RK28’s 2022 pup, later flipper-tagged as RQ78.

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Field Report: May 2023

Monthly Update: The Kauai team logged 287 seal sightings this month (303 in April, 294 in Mar, 249 in Feb, 252 in Jan, 239 in Dec). This included 36 individually identified seals.

New:

• Hooked seal reported by fisherman at PMRF. Fisher did not hook the seal, but did see a large circle hook and trailing line. After searching for a week, subadult female seal RL30 was found in the Poipu area with a large circle hook in the lower left side of mouth and had heavy trailing line ending with a pigtail swivel attached. The line was snipped using the pole-mounted seat belt cutter, removing the entanglement hazard. The seal has not yet thrown the hook, therefore a capture may be required in the near future.
• Second pup of the year was born on the north shore. Mother is Kauai born RH92, who has become an Oahu seal, even giving birth on Oahu last year. She surprised us by returning to her birth beach this year and giving birth to PK2. The pup is thriving.
• Flipper tagged weaned PK1 as RS30. The mother (RF30) nursed for 39 days and had an axillary girth of 98 cm, which is on the small side, but the seal is strong, healthy and thriving.

Updates:

• Pup born to RF30 on north shore. The weaned pup has remained in his natal area.

Bleach markings: 1 seal was bleach marked this month.

Vaccinations: the weaned seal RS30 was fully vaccinated.

Displacements: 3 seals were displaced from the Poipu keiki pool, per the management plan.

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Field Report: April 2023

The Kauai team logged 303 seal sightings this month (294 in Mar, 249 in Feb, 252 in Jan, 239 in Dec, 243 in Nov). This included 46 individually identified seals.

New:

·       Second Kauai pup of the year was born this past month. Mother is Kauai born RH92, who has become an Oahu seal, even giving birth on Oahu last year. She surprised us by returning to her birth beach this year and giving birth to PK2. The pup is thriving.

·        Juvenile Niihau seal was flipper-tagged as R7AJ on the beach at PMRF, and further trained the PMRF.

Updates:

·       Adult female RKA2 found logging for 5 days at Aliomanu Beach the previous month. We closely monitored and assessed with a pole camera. Head swollen with bite marks on head, neck, and flippers. Suspect dog attack. Successfully administered antibiotics while the seal was logging in the water. Administered a second dose along with pain meds while the seal was hauled out 6 days later. Seal appeared to be recovering. UPDATE: Finally resighted her fully healed and in good health after 5 weeks with no sightings (since the second antibiotic injection).

·       RF30 and PK1, she pup weaned the pup after 39 days of nursing and has remained in natal area. Seal was tagged as RS30, 2 weeks after weaning, somewhate small ax girth of 98 cm, but very healthy and strong.

Program:

·       Keoki’s Paradise restaurant hosted a volunteer appreciation luncheon in Poipu and 35 volunteers attended and enjoyed a free lunch buffet prepared just for them. It was part of volunteer appreciation month and a nice gesture by Keoki’s Paradise.

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Monk Seal Monday #192: Meet RS30

RF30 weaned PK1 at 39 days on April 27th. A week later, he was bleach-marked as V30. Last Friday, he was officially tagged S30 (left flipper) and S31 (right flipper). He will be known in NOAA’s scientific database as RS30. Two weeks after weaning, his axilliary girth measured 98 cm and his length from tip of the nose to tip of the tail was 124 centimeters. He’s lost some weight since RF30 weaned him and as he figures out the good bits to eat in the ocean, but he’s certainly not the smallest weaner of record. At the same time that RS30 was flipper-tagged, he was vaccinated against morbillivirus, a tissue sample collected, and a micro-chip pit tag (much like the kind used with dogs and cats) was inserted. And all that got done in less than five minutes.

Here are a couple videos provided by volunteers illustrating the development of this young Hawaiian monk seal.

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Monk Seal Monday #189: Mom and pup attract curious visitor:

First-time Mom RF30 continues to be an attentive mother while PK1 grows and develops into a healthy (nearly) one-month-old Hawaiian monk seal pup. He’s losing his black natal coat and spending more and more time swimming. All good signs.

Mom and pup have also attracted curious visitors—male monk seals. It’s not uncommon for males to show up on the beach soon after mothers give birth. Sometimes more than one male will haul out at the same time. Typically, all attention is focused on the mom. Perhaps the males know that soon, the female will go into estrus, and she’ll be ready for mating. But while mothers are with their pups, they usually want nothing to do with any visiting male.

Not unexpected, RF30 has attracted the attention of an Hawaiian monk seal male—RN30. And RF30 did not roll out the welcome mat. In fact, the two tussled for quite a while on several occasions. At times, as these photos show, the pup was in the midst of it all. 

During these episodes—sometimes in the shallow water and sometimes on the beach—there is quite a show of teeth and jaw snapping and snot flying and grunting and sand flinging. A fray. There are rarely any injuries and none were known to occur among RF30, RN30, and PK1. In fact, after one particularly long encounter that was reported to extend more than two hours, the two adults formed a kind of truce and both took naps on the beach twenty or thirty feet apart. 

Here are a series of photos illustrating these kinds of encounters. 

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Field Report: March 2023

Update: The Kauai team logged 294 seal sightings this month (249 in Feb, 252 in Jan, 239 in Dec, 243 in Nov, 277 in Oct). This included 40 individually identified seals.

New:

·       Niihau seal (J/F) Temp615, first found March 3 with wounded right fore-flipper. Assessed wound/seal behavior and consulted with NOAA biologists and vet. Decided to let wound heal on its own and not administer with antibiotics. The seal remained in the area has fully healed.

·       New pup born on the north shore to RF30. Pup is thriving.

·       Adult female RKA2 found logging for 5 days at Aliomanu. She was closely monitored and assessed with a pole camera. Head swollen with bite marks on head, neck, and flippers. Source of injuries unknown. Successfully administered antibiotics while seal was logging in the water. Administered a second dose along with pain meds while seal was hauled out 6 days later. Seal appears to be recovering.

Updates:

·       Juvenile male R616 observed with severe laceration across base of muzzle. Closely assessed by staff, wounds exactly match previous seals injuries caused by hagfish trap cones. Seal monitored without intervention. Seal fully healed in 3 weeks. 

Molting: 1 seals molted this past month.

Displacements: 1 seal was displaced from the keiki pool.

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Monk Seal Monday #187: RF30 Gives Birth

PC: Kaufman

Nine-year-old female RF30 (and daughter of the battle scarred RK30, profiled last week) gave birth to our first Kauai pup of the year. PK1 is her first known pup—and he’s also confirmed to be a boy!

PK1 is an active pup. When he was first sighted by a volunteer, he was reported to be circling mom, looking for a meal. And he’s found great success in discovering where his nourishment comes from, is learning to swim, and continues to be quite active. First time mom RF30 seems to be adjusting to motherhood quite well. She’s attentive but also doesn’t hesitate to pin the pup down with her front flippers if she doesn’t agree with what he’s doing. In this, she’s exhibiting behavior that’s reminiscent of her own  mother. RF30’s even perfected her mother’s spectacular side-eye.

As positive as the relationship between mom and pup appears to be, the first couple weeks of a pup’s life are critical to ensuring a strong bond is created with its mom—and especially with a first-time mom—so she doesn’t abandon her pup. In the water, moms can also be unpredictable and have been known to act aggressively towards nearby snorkelers, swimmers, and/or fishers. Two good reasons to give moms and pups a wide buffer when on land and in the water. Hawaiian monk seals are protected by state and federal laws. It is illegal to touch, harass, injure or kill a Hawaiian monk seal.

PC: Langley

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Monk Seal Monday #143: Male Aggression

When a monk seal hauls out on the beach with wounds on its back, the most common explanation is male-on-female aggression. That’s why earlier this month when a seal rolled onto the beach with a nasty wound on its back, the individual was suspected to be female. Too, the animal was tagged; however, the only visible characters on the very worn tag were “31.” That led to the conclusion the animal was female RF30 (with flipper tags F30 and F31).

However, on a closer look at the animal’s scars and tag in photographs, it was determined the monk seal was not F31. In fact, she wasn’t even a she. The wounded animal was, in fact, adult male RN30–with flipper tag N31. Subsequent photographs confirmed it.

While male-on-male aggression is rare, especially in the main Hawaiian Islands, it’s not novel. The behavior has been witnessed in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and is suspected to be related to skewed male-to-female sex ratios. The aggressors tend to be subordinate males ganging up on females. (Like we reported here.) But they can also gang up on adult dominant males.

According to this paper, high concentrations of subordinate males in an area of few females can lead to aggregate aggression. Also, “…much of the evidence gathered to date suggests that aggressive incidents may be more likely to result from a ‘numerical’ failure, where a male that is capable of exerting dominance over 1 or 2 competing males is overwhelmed by a larger number of competitors and is unable to prevent their access to a female.”

The paper shares one particular event: “At the onset of an aggressive onshore attack observed in 1985, an attending male defended a female from a succession of 4 male challengers that remained nearby. Eventually, one of the ‘defeated’ males made a second attempt, and as he fought the attending male, another male rushed in. The defending male rushed back towards the female, followed by all remaining males, and was quickly overwhelmed (Johanos & Austin 1988).”

Earlier this summer, a group of males was video’ed mobbing a female off Lehua, suggesting there may be many subordinate males present off Lehua and Niihau. It’s not known whether N30 is a dominant or subordinate male, but it’s clear he was attacked. Perhaps N30 got mixed up in something similar to the anecdote shared above. Earlier this year, he was observed competing with RN44 for RB00 when she was with PK1. He’s also been sighted at PMRF, a popular spot for seals heading to and/or returning from Niihau. In fact, he was sighted (with no wounds) at PMRF on July 30th. He was next sighted on Kauai’s north shore and reported to the Kauai Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation Hui on September 4th–bearing the mobbing wounds.

These mobbing wounds can look pretty dramatic. But monk seals have an amazing ability to heal and already, N30’s wounds are healing.

Photo credit: Olry and Megonnell

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Monk Seal Monday #107: Where Have All the Poipu Seals Gone?

In 2019, the south shore volunteer team was managing two, three, four and sometimes as many as six or seven seals at Poipu at the same time. Challenging times, indeed. Sometimes all seals clustered in one zone; sometimes they spread out over two or even three zones. Of course, the most challenging spot to manage human/seal interactions was the spot that seals liked most, which happened to be the main snorkeling water entrance/exit. In one emergency, lifeguards had to carry a drowning victim over two resting seals, literally, to bring her ashore for CPR. The good news is the rescue was a success, and the person recovered fully.

Then, earlier this year, when the COVID stay-at-home orders were instituted, the volunteer program was placed on hold, and tourism came to a virtual halt. We expected that the seals at Poipu would enjoy resting undisturbed. However, since the pandemic began, the seals seem to have disappeared from the Poipu area. One reason may be there are fewer people on the beaches, so there are fewer calls coming in the hotline. Make sense. But was there something else going on?

Here’s what a review of the data from the daily sightings log revealed:

As expected the number of seals reported in the Poipu area during April-August of this year dropped to a total of 73 sightings. The prior year, during the same five month window, there were a total of 257 reported seal sightings.

A comparison of the individual seals sighted in Poipu in 2019 versus 2020 during that same April-August window revealed the number of unique seals identified in the Poipu area dropped from 21 unique seals in 2019 to 12 in 2020. Too, there’s a slightly different cast of characters hauling out at Poipu this year.

Notably, the notorious “Poipu boys,” a group of rough-housing male seals, have split up with several moving to Oahu, and a couple others moving back to Niihau. From that notorious group, only RG58 remains, and he’s often spotted on the rocks near Brenneckes Beach these days.

Also, two seals from 2019 that occasionally hauled out at Poipu have died—RK30 of old age late last year and RJ36 of a hook ingestion several months ago. Apart from the loss of these two, all the other Poipu regulars of last year are still alive, based on sighting reports across the state.

What this tells us is seal behavior isn’t static, and just when you come to expect the expected out of a seal or group of seals or a particular haul-out location, things change.  As the old philosopher Heroclitus said, “Change is the only constant in life.” Guess he was talking about seals, too.

For more specifics take a look at the list of seals seen in 2019 and 2020.

April through August 2019 – These 21 individuals comprised the 257 reported seal sightings in the Poipu area from Shipwrecks to Lawai Beach):

NG00 -sighted at PMRF in 2020 and frequently on Niihau
R1KY
R1NI
R336 – rare seal
R339 – now an Oahu regular
R376
R3CX – now an Oahu regular
R402 – rare seal
R6FQ – sighted elsewhere on Kauai on 2019 and 2020
R7AA
RF28 – now an Oahu regular
RF30
RG22 – now an Oahu regular
RG58
RH38
RJ36 
RK30 – died of old age in late 2019
RK36 – occasional visitor from Oahu
RK90
RN02 – sighted at PMRF in 2020 and frequently on Niihau
RW22 – occasional visitor from Oahu

April through August 2020 – These 12 unique individuals made up the 73 reported seal sightings in the Poipu area (Shipwrecks to Lawai Beach): 

R1KY
R1NI
R339
R340 – rarely sighted on Kauai
R376
R407 – rarely sighted on Kauai
R7AA
RF30
RG58
RH38
RJ36 – died from hook ingestion in the first half of 2020
RK90

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