Mediterranean monk seals are clinging on in fragments of their former range
Photos byMARCO COLOMBO, BRUNO D’AMICIS & UGO MELLONE
Moving sight
For a species that, like its pinniped cousins, seems so ungainly on land, the Mediterranean monk seal is astonishingly lithe beneath the waves – here, darting through the shallow azure of southern Greece. This is one of its few remaining strongholds where three Italian photographers have focused their efforts on telling the story of this beautiful but Endangered creature, one of the world’s most threatened marine mammals.
In the wars
This powerful predator might top the food chain in the Mediterranean, like the wolf on land, but life isn’t without challenges, not least from its own kind, as revealed by the scars on this female in Greece – probably souvenirs from territorial scuffles.
Two’s company
In general, adult monk seals are fairly solitary and shy in open water, but these weaned juveniles, a year or so old, enjoy frolics above the swaying Neptune seagrass in Greece. Youngsters will chase and spar beneath the surface, sometimes even leaping from the waves.
Cove love
Until early last century, monk seals thrived around the Mediterranean coast, Black Sea and eastern Atlantic, from Portugal south to Senegal. Today, only around 800 are believed to survive, more than half around the rocky cliffs, uninhabited islets and remote, sheltered bays of Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, a few hundred on the coasts of Mauritania and Western Sahara, and a couple of dozen in Madeira.
Safe space
Seals sleep and give birth on small beaches as well as rock ledges in sea caves, the entrances of which are typically submerged for additional security. They usually emerge at twilight, when they can move more easily without being noticed by humans.
Hopefully home
This kind of craggy cove on the Gulf of Orosei in eastern Sardinia, with its limestone cliffs, small beaches and deep caves, was one of the last strongholds of monk seals in Italy. Sadly, no breeding has been recorded here for several decades, and sightings are rare – but it’s hoped that the species might return here to breed once more.
Shore thing
Coastal development is booming in parts of the eastern Mediterranean, with tight-packed rows of villas built right up to the shoreline above the rocky cliffs and caves preferred by monk seals, as in this aerial shot of an estate near Paphos, south-west Cyprus. “Though sea
