Name:
Habitat:
Historical Epoch:
Size and Weight:
Diet:
Distinguishing Characteristics:
About the Caribbean Monk Seal:
You may be surprised to learn that seals don't only live in frigid climates; there are two extant, but endangered, warm-water species (the Hawaiian Monk Seal and the Mediterranean Monk Seal) and one that has gone completely extinct, the Caribbean Monk Seal. This graceful, moderately sized seal was described as far back as 1494 by Christopher Columbus (who called it a "sea wolf," probably because it kept stealing fish from his boat's nets), and the last confirmed sighting was in 1952.
It's no big mystery why the Caribbean Monk Seal went extinct. As so often happens with island species, this seal had no natural predators (except perhaps for sharks), and its trusting nature made it easy prey for human settlers. Also, the relentless development of the Caribbean islands increasingly restricted this seal's habitat, until finally it had literally nowhere else to go. (International authorities are trying to prevent the same fate from befalling the Hawaiian Monk Seal and the Mediterranean Monk Seal, the populations of which can be numbered in the hundreds.)
