Vol. 10 (1): June 2007

A joyful loss

by İlksen Dinçer Baş
 

Her release ceremony was perfectly done. Her caretakers, volunteers, seal lovers, media, uniformed and smiling carriers of her release cage, the minister and the mayor were all there to celebrate her release. As soon as the audience saw the photos and the footage of Badem, everybody was her family. They giggled and made exclamations as if they were watching a photo album of a loved one. There she was with her dry black eyes shrunken inwards! She was so skinny then! Look how she tries to bite the hose! Isn’t she lovely! Wow she’s chasing an eel now like a guided missile with her eyes crossed!

Five months ago there had been a fierce storm. She swam alone in a sea empty as a desert on cold winter days. She used her instincts to stay alive. When she reached the shores of Didim, she hauled out and collapsed upon the seaweed. She could hardly make it this far. Well-intentioned onlookers, on the other hand, tried to push her back into the water as if she’d washed ashore like a dolphin. It was AFAG’s phone call that stopped this. Didim’s veterinarian helped us take the necessary measures.

From then on, all our decades of effort to protect monk seals paid off. We harvested the seeds we had sown — that is to say, everybody who had once been involved or interested in the monk seal got organized and did their best during her rescue and rehabilitation. Mustafa Koc, a businessman, sponsored the efforts. The Municipality of Foça constructed a fully equipped rehabilitation unit. The SRRC sent one of its best caregivers. Fishermen caught octopus for her. Journalists rushed in to let the news spread. It was our first baby.

In the beginning, she suckled the doors and walls with her squinted eyes. An angry or curious or frustrated “Baa!” was her sound. “She is quite a character,” says everybody who knows her, “very wild and clever.”  In the third month I asked why she always remained inside the pool even when the pool was empty. The caregivers said, “We normally clean the pool when she is not in it. We used to attract her attention towards the platform by throwing things that she followed. This changed as she grew up. Once we put a bucket to attract her, she came over, and we blocked her on the platform. The second day she didn’t come for the bucket. Then we tried fish. She came for the fish, grabbed it with her jaws and tried to turn back to the pool. We blocked the way and she stayed on the platform. Next day she was so fast that she outran us and splashed into the water with a fish in her mouth. The following day, we threw the fish a little bit further, she didn’t move a flipper to come out. She remained inside for good. So the water level now goes down to zero and up to the brim while she is in it. The rehab unit is hers and she has the privilege of choosing where she stays.”

During these five months, I developed a greater respect for animals of all kinds. The struggle of an octopus that stretched its long sticky cupped arms out of a bucket to escape; its determination to stay alive was remarkable. They never give up, even up to the last minute. The same for Badem. She knew by nature how to catch and eat each creature around to stay alive. For that octopus, her tactic would be to corner it and grab it at the head. Then she would shake her head in the air as if enjoying hard rock playing in her ears until the arms of the octopus had fallen still, making it an easy swallow. When you see Badem feeding herself, you feel proud. A completely different way of eating occurs with the eels. This time she catches and bites the eel from head to tail and then swallows.

I strongly recommend everyone to click on AFAG’s web page. It’s not because I have limited space to tell you about her, but it is because I can never tell enough of her cute face, her backstroke underwater, her never ending tumbles, her back flippers like a tulip when they’re swirling, nor her almond eyes. Photos are always useful to imagine the rest. However, a release photo might not succeed in telling you that this was a very emotional day for everyone. Once you have nothing more to do to protect your loved one, you pray. I admit this was what I did when she was gone, even though I have no religion. Her pool is empty now. Her reunion with nature is a joyful loss for all of us.

İlksen Dinçer Baş, Foça, Turkey, April 2007.

İlksen Dinçer Baş is a Turkish writer, former teacher, and a long-time supporter of the Mediterranean Seal Research Group (AFAG).

Copyright © 2007 İlksen Dinçer Baş, The Monachus Guardian. All Rights Reserved