Cartography has us near enough up - to - date on the ballad of the body politic on Earth , but while we can view stretches of land from space , we can still miss out on nugget of biological phenomena in the finer details . One such golden nugget was recently ensure in Northern Cyprus , where researchers found a breeding ground for Mediterranean Monk seals ( Hawaiian Monk sealsare theeel snorters ) that was antecedently unknown to scientific discipline .
The find , put out in the journalOryx – The International Journal of Conservation , is a rare bit of dear newsworthiness for the world ’s most scupper species of seal . conservationist can now work towards prioritizing caves that should be protected in the region to support the lengthiness of the population .
As an endangered coinage , the Mediterranean monk sealing wax currently sit around at a population estimation of just 700 animals in the state of nature . In a insistency release , the authors of thenew studyexplain that in 2007 , a resume of the coast in the region identify 39 cave that had potential as breeding grounds for Monk cachet – but of those 39 , there have already been several lose due to growing in the area .
fraught females are smart parent and will select remote and hard - to - access clandestine cave or , more rarely , remote beach ( some even set up camp on aGreek prison island ) . It ’s a smart strategy for avoiding predators when the puppy are at their most vulnerable , but poses a similar obstacle for conservation ecologist render to give where the terra firma are and how to protect them .
Thankfully , the team on this latest research from the University of Exeter were able to team up up with the Society for the Protection of Turtles ( SPOT ) and employ camera traps as a outback mean value of supervise Monk cachet . The subsequent imagery was able to sustain there were breeding caves in Northern Cyprus , with grounds of at least three pups being born from 2016 to 2019 in just one cave . Though the numbers are small-scale , they are mighty for such an endangered animal , but the pressure is on to keep these areas safe .
" This area of coastline [ is ] being develop rapidly , especially for construction of hotels , " said Dr Robin Snape , of the Exeter Centre for Ecology and Conservation in astatement . " The main nurture web site we identify in this cogitation currently has no protect status , and we are working with local authorisation to prove to change this . "
The oeuvre does n’t stop there , as another major scourge for Monk seals is getting swept up as bycatch . keep breeding footing secure is only so in effect if the surviving pup do n’t by chance end up in piscary apprehension . The squad is work with fisheries and governing body in the region to enforce novel measures and protect the caves ’ graduating pup .
