The Hawaiian Monk Seal (Neomonachus schauinslandi) is one of the rarest animals on Earth. This critically endangered mammal is endemic to Hawaii and there are only 1100 monk seals left in the wild, so it’s very exciting to see that the monk seal family has grown by another one member. This baby seal was born last Wednesday on Oahu. She is the first known monk seal born in the main Hawaiian Islands this year. Her mom named „Honey Girl” was tagged in 2002 on Kauai and she is approximately 17 years old. This pup is her ninth infant. In 2012 Honey Girl was found near death at Sunset Beach (North Shore of Oahu) with a fish hook in her cheek and with a tongue that was badly infected. She was brought to the Honolulu Zoo where the hook was removed and she had a surgery to repair her tongue. After two weeks of rehabilitation at Waikiki Aquarium she was released back to the wild to continue her life as nature intended. Since then she gave birth to two pups including this latest one.

Last weekend, my wife, Gabi and I were fortunate enough to spend some time watching Honey Girl and her new pup. Mom and pup will stay onshore for about five to six weeks. It’s very important they are not disturbed during the nursing period, so there are volunteers on the pupping site to help minimizing human contact. We spent about two hours enjoying their view from a fair distance. Both Honey Girl and the pup seemed to be healthy and I was happy to be able to take some adorable photographs with my long lens.

Canon EOS 7D, Canon 300mm F/4 lens + Canon 1.4x extender, tripod