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. 2025 Feb 20;15(5):617.
doi: 10.3390/ani15050617.

First Insights into the Home Range of an Adult Male Mediterranean Monk Seal Monachus monachus in the Ionian Sea, Greece, and Considerations About the Future Management of the Area

Aliki Panou  1 , Spyros Tsoukalas  1 , Anastasios Anestis  1 , Luigi Bundone  2   3
Affiliations

First Insights into the Home Range of an Adult Male Mediterranean Monk Seal Monachus monachus in the Ionian Sea, Greece, and Considerations About the Future Management of the Area

Aliki Panou et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

From August 2021 to December 2023, one adult male Mediterranean monk seal was repeatedly registered, through a systematic monitoring camera system, frequenting a marine cave in southern Kefalonia Island, central Ionian Sea, Greece. The presence of the same adult seal in a series of caves and overhangs in a bay in northwestern Zakynthos, southern Ionian Sea, in September 2023 and May 2024 was verified through opportunistic surveys and citizen science. The two locations are ca. 15 km apart and each is located in a different marine NATURA 2000 site. Appropriate conservation measures need to take into consideration the fact that seals do move between Kefalonia and Zakynthos (and possibly also other Ionian islands) and that the entire area has to be considered as a single "conservation unit" rather than elaborating protection measures on a small scale around a couple of resting and pupping caves alone. A full network of marine caves under strict protection surrounded by a buffer zone, taking into account at least the species' home range, is needed in order to substantially cover the monk seal's critical terrestrial habitats throughout the Ionian Sea.

Keywords: Greece; Monachinae; central Mediterranean; establishment of MPAs; marine mammal; use of caves.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Map of Kefalonia, Ithaca, Zakynthos, and minor islets, Ionian Sea, Greece. (B) Close-up of the area containing the caves used by seal A028 in southern Kefalonia and northwestern Zakynthos (red rectangle in Figure 1A). The caves’ locations are indicated with green stars. The map was adapted from Google Earth Pro (Google LLC, Mountain View, CA, USA).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Seal A028 in cave KEF64, southern Kefalonia, 17 February 2023 (camera pictures).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Seal A028 in caves ZAK-A and ZAK-B (pictures left and centre), northwestern Zakynthos, mid-September 2023, and in cave ZAK-B on the 11 May 2024 (picture on the right).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Seal A028, left lateral part of the belly patch: camera pictures from Kefalonia (the first two pictures from the left) and picture from Zakynthos (picture on the right).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Seal A028, ventral view of the belly patch: camera pictures from Kefalonia (the first pictures from the left) and picture from Zakynthos (picture on the right).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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