Aggressive Monk Seal Gets New Lease on Life

An unusually aggressive Hawaiian monk seal is settling into his temporary home at the Waikiki Aquarium after almost being killed last fall. The 9-year-old male known as KE18 has been beating up younger seals in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands. Endangered monk seals are having a hard enough time staying alive. They don’t need one of their own brutalizing young pups and threatening their survival.

A NOAA team led by Dr. Charles Littnan was prepared to euthanize the aggressive 450-pound bully. But when they went to Kure Atoll last August the wily seal was nowhere to be found. Between fall and winter he swam to nearby Midway. That bit of luck saved the seal’s life and gives scientists a chance to study this type of aggression.

Dr. Littnan tells REALscience that low level aggression is common in monk seals, especially males. But he says, “KE18′s behavior was a more extreme version of this.”

If KE18 had not eluded capture last summer he would have been killed by the NOAA team that is studying monk seals in the area. At the time there was no facility available to house the rogue seal. Since then a spot opened up in California where scientists will study KE18 to see why he’s so aggressive.

Dr. Littnan says, “People that go through trauma when they’re young can have troubles when they’re older. KE18, if you look at him, he’s got lots of scars that are indicative of being perhaps a victim of a male aggressor himself. So does violence beget violence? We don’t know.”

The marine biologist says the team collected a full set of samples for a standard health screening. They are looking for anything unusual that could explain his erratic behavior. They will look for bacteria, viruses and even environmental contaminants like lead or other toxins that will show up in the seal’s blood. Veterinarians will also check his hormone levels and blood to assess the seal’s overall health and organ function.

KE18 is becoming aware of people and is starting to realize that that’s where his food is coming from. Dera Look of NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Stranding Program says, “He’s acclimating very well to his environment.” He’ll spend another couple weeks in Honolulu before flying to Santa Cruz.

Dr. Littnan says male monk seals can be aggressive at times but that aggression is not a major factor in high mortality rates among young seal pups. He says fewer than one in five monk seals make it to adulthood. Apex sea predators seem to be the biggest problem for young seals. He says, “Young monk seals are being outcompeted by other large apex predators like sharks and jaks.”

If a seal can survive until it is three then its odds of survival increase significantly. Dr. Littnan’s monk seal recovery program is focused on increasing seal survival rates from birth to age 3. He says, “Our efforts have resulted in 18-23 percent of monk seals alive today.” If NOAA and its partners hadn’t been working on conserving monk seals the population would be about 30 percent lower.

Dr. Littnan says, KE18 was a threat, he killed pups so he cannot be returned to the wild.”

KE-18 is known to have attacked at least 13 pups and juvenile seals at Kure and Midway Atolls and killed at least two. And among a dwindling population of monk seals needlessly losing one to its own is unacceptable.

Dr. Littnan says, “In the next 15 to 20 years there may be a total of 34 pups that are born in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands compared to there’s about 100 right now.” He says, “So when you start talking about the removal of one pup or two pups, or three pups – you are talking about substantially impacting the ability of this population to perpetuate.”

After about two years in Santa Cruz KE18 will be moved one more time to his permanent home at Oahu’s Sea Life Park where he will become a tourist attraction.