Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 85, January 2009, pp. 1-20. | Page 5

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the beaches to inhabit rocky and desolate coastlines. With a boom in pleasure-boating,
even these areas are now coming under threat, particularly as the seals give birth between
May and November, during the height of the tourist season. The killing of a monk seal
may be illegal on paper, but the animals are still the target of sports hunters and even
tourists with spear-guns. The last seals of Tunisia, in the Galite archipelago, disappeared
in 1985. Two were reportedly captured for an Italian travelling circus, and another
speared by a snorkeling Italian tourist.

Fisherman mending his seal-damaged nets on Leros
Once renowned for their friendly and confiding nature, the seals have now been forced to
hide and give birth in dismal caves as a last refuge for their lives. It is doubtful that this
will help them survive. Autumn and winter storms often cause breakers to surge into the
caves, washing the weaning pups out into the sea where they drown. Human disturbance
can also break the fragile mother-pup bond during the 16-week weaning period, leaving
the infant seal to perish, unable to fend for itself. There has even been evidence of
mothers aborting their young, apparently because of the fright and panic inspired by their
only predator, Homo sapiens.
Today, no more than 350-500 seals have managed to survive this relentless persecution,
and the species has disappeared from most of its former range. Scattered colonies, often
numbering no more than two or three individuals, are now found along the coasts of
Madeira, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sardinia and ex-Yugoslavia. But almost three-quarters
of the entire remaining monk seal population has found its last refuge in the Aegean,
especially on the Greek and Turkish borders, a tense military zone.
Military exercises with warships, fighter planes, tanks and artillery, the sowing of
minefields along beaches, the relentless growth of habitat-devouring military installations
– all of these have a silent but insidious bearing on Mediterranean wildlife. And the

Gazelle – Number 85 – January 2009