West Indian Monk Seal

SCIENTIFIC NAME 

The West Indian Monk Seal has been described as beautiful animals. They had a brown coat, lightly frosted with grey and faded to a pale yellow on the stomach. The females were thought to have reached up to 600 pounds with the males being probably a little larger. The neck had surrounding rolls of fat which looked like a hood on the seal. 

These seals reportedly ate mostly reef fish but also enjoyed eels, lobsters and octopus. 

It is thought that these seals were born in early December as females that were captured during these months often possessed well developed fetuses. Pups were believed to have weighed up to 100 pounds. 

The West Indian Monk Seal could be found on both the sandy and rocky shores of islands throughout its range. 

This seal is now extinct. The Caribbean Monk Seal once inhabited the Caribbean Sea, northwest to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as from the Bahamas to the Yucatan Peninsula, south along the Central American coast and east to the northern Antilles. Extralimital records and fossil remains from the southeastern United States also exist. 

Last published records of these seals in the Bahamas is by J. A. Allen in 1880 in which he wrote, "...some few (seals) are to be found in the Bahamas". The last known breeding colony was observed in 1952 off the coast of Mexico. Even though there have been reports of sightings since then, it is believed that these were in fact misidentified sightings of wondering Hooded Seals. Recent expeditions have concluded that this species is in fact extinct as stated on the IUCN's Red list of threatened species. 

Seals were mostly hunted as a source of oil from their blubber but also for fur and as a food source. They did not have any natural terrestrial predators, it was unusually tame and therefore very easy to catch.