Whiskers...

 

Monk Seal Whiskers

 

RK52

 

 

Tuesday I attended a mandatory training for those individuals wanting to be volunteer

 responders for the Hawaiian Monk Seal.  I had been a volunteer responder when we lived on Molokai. I needed to attend the Kauai group training because they have a few different situations that were not common on Molokai...ie, dealing with tourist in the monk seals face. So today I learned to set up a SPZ (seal protection zone) and how to deal with the public or maybe I should say the Monk Seal paparazzi! It was an interesting and insightful training  and  I am looking forward to being a responder again.

 

These shots were taken last sunday, while R and I were at a beach on the north shore. This seal is a two year old female known as RK52, who has recently molted(basically she shed all of her hair and a layer of skin) and decided she wanted to snooze on the beach.

 a beautiful animal, all shiny and sporting a new gray coat

 

 dozens of peeps now have photos of her to show folks "back home"

 

some got a little too close...

 

 Here you see one of her identification tags,  K52

Red Tag--means she was born in the Main Hawaiian Islands

The "K" denotes the year she was born--2011

The 52 is like her social security number

 

.

 

She enjoyed her nap on the beach....paparazzi and all.

 

***please note all of my photos were taken from an appropriate distance with a zoom lens***

 

Aloha,

Val