{"id":3135,"date":"2014-12-18T16:33:54","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T16:33:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2018-09-15T11:02:42","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T11:02:42","slug":"seal-breeding-season-in-the-desertas-islands-madeira","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/2014\/12\/18\/seal-breeding-season-in-the-desertas-islands-madeira\/","title":{"rendered":"Seal breeding season in the Desertas Islands, Madeira"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rosa Pires, Parque Natural da Madeira<\/h5>\n
\"Two<\/a>
Two females and one pup interacting at the entrance of the Bufador cave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result of the campaign to monitor the monk seal breeding season in Madeira\u2019s Desertas islands, we could confirm already the birth of two pups, a female and a male. These two, born in September\/October, were monitored over 2 weeks at the entrance of Bufador cave, where a concealed lookout post was established. From here it was possible to identify the group of seals using the cave and observe their behaviour without disturbing them or influencing their natural behaviour.<\/p>\n

With an estimated age of 1 month, the pups used to come out of the cave very frequently, but always staying near the entrance and being followed by their mothers \u201cTria\u201d and \u201cManchada\u201d, or by the other three females identified in the area. In total ten different seals were identified using this cave \u2013 two pups, five females, one adult male and two juveniles. On one day it was possible to observe nine of these seals.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>
Three females and one male at the entrance of the Bufador cave.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A dead seal was also found at the entrance of Bufador cave \u2013 one of the juveniles. The body was already in a state of advanced decomposition, and the cause of death could not be established. However, the presence of this dead seal resulted in interesting observations of the behaviour of one of the pups. Several times we were almost on the point of entering the water to save the pup, which had invented a \u201cnice\u201d game in \u201cplaying dead\u201d by being completely inactive for long moments. In fact, when we first detected the dead juvenile, this pup was following the body, which was moving with the sea current, trying to interact with her.<\/p>\n

Additionally a pup and a female were detected in another cave, Vermelhas, suggesting a third birth. However, sea conditions did not allow us to confirm this information.<\/p>\n

\"Mother<\/a>
Mother with pup from the 2014 breeding season at the Desertas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To date, four births have been detected during 2014, including two occurring before the typical breeding season, and two deaths \u2013 the juvenile mentioned above and an adult male found in Madeira.<\/p>\n

As part of \u00a0the new EU LIFE Project [see New EU LIFE project for Madeira\u2019s monk seals<\/a>], several surveillance cameras were placed in the most important caves around the Desertas. It is hoped that these will be an important tool in monitoring the monk seal breeding season more effectively, achieving a more accurate number of births and deaths, identifying reproducing females and gaining a better understanding of the seals\u2019 behaviour in the caves.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rosa Pires, Parque Natural da Madeira As a result of the campaign to monitor the monk seal breeding season in Madeira\u2019s Desertas islands, we could confirm already the birth of two pups, a female and a male. These two, born in September\/October, were monitored over 2 weeks at the entrance of Bufador cave, where a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Seal breeding season in the Desertas Islands, Madeira”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,1,50],"tags":[35,68],"class_list":["post-3135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mediterranean-news","category-med-monk-seal","category-madeira","tag-management","tag-behaviour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3135"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4052,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3135\/revisions\/4052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}