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The Hawaiian monk seal, classified as Monachus schauinslandi in the Family Phocidae, is an endangered marine mammal endemic to the warm, clear waters of the Hawaiian Archipelago. It gets its common name from its round head covered with short hairs, giving it the appearance of a medieval friar. The name may also refelect the fact that the Hawaiian monk seal lives a more solitary existence, in comparison with other seals that in places collect in large colonies. The Hawaiian Monk seal comes from ancestors that that go far back in time and are the most primitive living members of the Family Phocidae, having separated from other true seals perhaps 15 million years ago.

1 Features

Mature Hawaiian monk seals feature a brownish pelage, or coat. Young Hawaiian monk seals are silver with creamy white bellies, chests and throats. Pups are black and woolly with fuzzy short hair. Newborns are dark black. Hawaiian monk seals tend to sport scars from attempted shark attacks or injuries from fishing gear. Females are often scarred by encounters with males, who can be particularly brutal during the mating season. If numbers of males take an interest in a single female, they will often kill her. Females of any age can be fair game, including pups. Adult males are 300 to 400 pounds in weight and at 7 feet in length while adult females tend to be 400 to 600 pounds and at 8 feet in length. Pups average at 30 to 40 pounds at birth and at 40 inches in length. Life expectancies are from 25 to 30 years.

2 Habitat

Hawaiian monk seals are found in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) and only occasionally seen around the major islands of Ni'ihau and Kaua'i—very rarely on beaches on O'ahuO‘ahu is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous island in the state of Hawai‘i. Total land area is 608 mile² (1,575 km²). The city of Honolulu—largest city, state capital, and main deepwater marine port for the State of Hawai‘i—is loc or the other islands. The largest population (some 1,500 animals in 2002) occurs at French Frigate ShoalsThe French Frigate Shoals ( Hawaiian: Knemiloha'i is the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Its name commemorates French explorer Jean-Francois de La Perouse, who nearly lost two frigates when attempting to navigate the shoals. It consist.

Hawaiian monk seals come ashore on sandy beaches for rest and recuperation, and perhaps to escape sharks in the NWHI. Respiration on land is controlled by long periods of breath-holding. Monk seals are solitary, both in the water and onshore. When loose groups form on beaches, they gather because the local environment conditions are favorable. Except for mothers with pups, resting seals avoid bodily contact with each other.

Hawaiian monk seals feed on spiny lobsterClawed lobsters comprise a family Nephropidae of large marine crustaceans. Smaller varieties are sometimes called "lobsterettes". Lobsters are invertebrates, and have a tough exoskeleton, which protects them. Like all arthropods, lobsters must molt in ord, eelsAn eel is any of the fishes in the order Anguilliformes. The flat and transparent larva of the eel is called a leptocephalus. Short movie of migrating glasseels: The fresh water eels unagi and marine eels ( Conger eel, anago are commonly used in Japanese (except the conger eelConger or conger eel is a vernacular term used of a number of different species of fish, mostly eels of the family Congridae, and especially the genus Conger''. Likely possibilities include: Anguilla reinhardtii Ariosoma balearicum Bathycongrus thysanochi and moray eelMoray eels are large cosmopolitan eels of the family Muraenidae . There are approximately 200 species in 15 genera, the largest being the slender giant moray Strophidon sathete at up to 4 m (13 feet) in length. Most morays measure in at 1. 5 m (5 feet) in), flatfish, small reefIn nautical parlance, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature beneath the surface of the water, but shallow enough to be a hazard to ships; see also shoal''. Many reefs result from abiotic processes—deposition of sands, wave erosion planning down rock fish, larval fish, and octopus14 in two suborders, see text For other meanings of "octopus", see Octopus (disambiguation). The octopus is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. The term may also refer to only those c. Monk seals may eat as much as ten percent of their body weight in a day. They sometimes spend many days at sea before returning to the islands where they sleep and digest their food.