Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 133, January 2016, pp. 1-29. | Page 13

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“As best we could judge,” they continued, “the body length (tip of snout to tip of
tail) was ca. 120 cm, which if indeed a monk seal, would make the individual a
few months old pup. On the one hand, this finding is exciting, considering that
the last time a monk seal pup was observed in this area was in the mid 1930‟s.
On the other hand, it is obvious that there are no active breeding caves anywhere
near the beaching point. The decomposed state of the body, the low water
temperature and the rough winter storms support the assumption that the body
may have drifted a long distance” (The Monachus Guardian, 2004; Khalaf-von
Jaffa, 2009, 2013).
The authors went on to postulate that the animal – if indeed it was a monk seal –
may have drifted towards Palestine from the Cilician Basin in Turkey, Cyprus or
even Cyrenaica in Libya (The Monachus Guardian, 2004; Khalaf-von Jaffa, 2009,
2013).

The taxidermied Mediterranean Monk Seal (Monachus monachus, Hermann 1779) at the
Paulus-Haus Museum – Deutscher Verein vom Heiligen Lande in Al-Quds (Jerusalem),
Occupied Palestine. Photo: Prof. Dr. Sc. Norman Ali Bassam Ali Taher Khalaf-von Jaffa.
23.07.2014. https://www.flickr.com/photos/50022881@N00/15216698338/
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 133 – January 2016