Monk seals
Original title: Lobos Marinhos
Account of the Mediterranean monk seal (lobo marinho) in the Madeira archipelago, abundant at Câmara de Lobos at the discovery but hunted out of Madeira and surviving only in sea caves of the Deserta Grande.
Frutuoso says that João Gonçalves Zarco and his companions found at the place they named Câmara de Lobos ‘so many monk seals (lobos marinhos, literally ‘sea wolves’) that it was a marvel; and it was no small refreshment and pastime for the men, for they killed many of them and had great pleasure and merriment in the slaughter’.
What the discoverers did was repeated countless times later, with the result that the monk seals disappeared from Câmara de Lobos, and perhaps from other points of the island where they may have existed. Today these animals appear only in the sea caves of the Deserta Grande (‘great deserted island’), but since fishermen kill them whenever they find them, it is to be expected that they will disappear from that island too, as they have already disappeared from Madeira.
In the spring of 1878 eight monk seals were killed on the Deserta Grande, and after that others were destroyed or captured on that island, some of them being put on show to the curious public of Funchal. The British Museum holds several specimens of monk seal from the Deserta Grande, one of them more than a metre and a half long. The museum of the Funchal lyceum (state secondary school) once had a small specimen of the same species, also captured on that island, which lived for a few days in a pond in the Jardim Municipal (‘municipal garden’). There is a specimen in the Municipal Museum.
The monk seal of the Madeira archipelago is Monachus albiventer, a Mediterranean species whose southernmost habitat is the Deserta Grande.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 01Place
Places mentioned · 06
Abroad
- British Museum
United Kingdom. Holds several seal specimens from the Deserta Grande.
The British Museum holds the best zoological collections from Madeira, including most of T. Vernon Wollaston's specimens and several seal specimens from the Deserta Grande. It also holds Sydney Parkinson's drawings.
- Câmara de Lobos
Place named after the seals the discoverers found there, from which they later disappeared.
Parish west of Funchal. The Elucidário traces its name to Zarco's discovery voyage and describes its churches, chapels and collegiate chapter, early settlers, fishing community and renowned vineyards. It also records the parish's localities, boundaries, levadas and population.
- Deserta Grande
Santa Cruz · Desertas. Last refuge of the monk seal in the archipelago, in its sea caves.
The largest island of the Desertas, 490 m high, seasonally visited by hunters, fishers and orchil gatherers. The steamer Lagos ran aground there in 1902, and it was visited by the Prince of Monaco in 1888 and by the Dana scientists. Its landing at Carga da Lapa is 21.5 miles from Funchal.
- Funchal
Captured seals were exhibited to the public there.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Funchal Municipal Museum
Funchal. Holds a seal specimen.
The Museu Municipal do Funchal is a museum in Funchal. It keeps the sword attributed to Zargo, Gil Enes's gravestone, a seal specimen and the image of St George, and its atrium holds the 1787 inscription from the Torreão bridge.
- Jardim Municipal do Funchal
Funchal. A young captured seal lived some days in its pond.
The Municipal Garden of Funchal is a public garden laid out on the site of the former Franciscan convent, destroying the foundations of a planned town hall; it is flanked by streets named after Capelo and Ivens. It is notable for its palms, Pandanus and Dammara. It holds the aviators' monument, whose first stone was laid in 1921, and the João Fernandes Vieira monument, moved there in 1933.
People
People mentioned · 02- Gaspar Frutuoso1522–1591
Azorean chronicler quoted for the account of the many seals found and killed by the discoverers at Câmara de Lobos.
- João Gonçalves Zarcod. 1467
Discoverer of Madeira whose party found and slaughtered numerous seals at the place they named Câmara de Lobos.