SURVIVAL RATES FOR THE HAWAIIAN MONK SEAL (MONACHUS-SCHAUINSLANDI)

Endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi) pups at all the major breeding islands in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have been tagged since the early 1980s. Pups were double flipper tagged as soon as possible post-weaning. With few exceptions, an extensive tag resig hting effort was conducted annually at the same islands. These resight ing data were used to estimate seal survival rates from the time of ta gging to age one at all locations using the ratio of seals alive in ea e second year to number of pups tagged. These survival fates among the islands, from weaning to age one, averaged over the years of the stud y, ranged from 0.80 to 0.90. For young seals over age one, capture-rec apture methods were used to calculate survival pooled through several years, and these rates ranged from 0.85 to 0.98. At French Frigate Sho als and Laysan Island, the higher numbers of tagged pups allowed separ ate estimates of male and female survival to be calculated. These rate s suggested that survival of immature females was better than males. B eginning in 1989, survival of immature seals at French Frigate Shoals decined sharply.