Update: The animal I was thinking of is the Hawaiian Monk Seal (Monachus schauinsland)

Monk seals are some of the most endangered and rarest marine mammals on earth. There are maybe 1500 Hawaiian monk seals alive right now. There are only 300-500 of their Mediterranean cousins left, and the Caribbean monk seal was last spotted in the 1950s and declared extinct about a decade ago.

The Hawaiian monk seal is a unique marine mammal. First off there are only two extant species of tropical/sub-tropical seals on earth. Second, because their population is so small, random events play a much larger role in their survival (demographic stochasticity). Finally because there is such a small number of reproductive females left, very abnormal breeding behavior takes place (look up mobbing if you are interested).

Tomorrow I will give free minutes to everyone who guessed the species I was thinking about. Today, I would like you all to take a moment and think about the Hawaiian monk seal. I hope they make it, but the odds are against them. Realize that while technology, modernization, and progress brings a great deal to humans, too often it is the overall diversity of this world that suffers. Most of our users are extremely bright professionals full of great promise. Let’s all try to make a positive impact for our future generations.

—Original Post Below——

I am going to give away 200 free minutes to everyone who can guess what animal I am thinking of. You need to be specific. I want the species name (common name, not the latin name). For instance you can’t say monkey.

Anyway here are your clues:

demographic stochasticity

French Frigate Shoals

MMPA

I wrote a paper on these guys back when I was studying at the MBL in Woods Hole. Submit your answer via the comments below. I will keep the comments hidden until end of day tomorrow. Every existing account holder that guesses right will get 200 free minutes to call India.

Next order of business: We have added new Australia Access numbers.

DARWIN : +61 08 8986 7057
NEWCASTLE : +61 02 4022 8807
LAUNCESTON : +61 03 6349 1250

Here is more information on cheap calling from India to Australia. I’d like to thank everyone down under for making us the fastest growing calling service to India in Australia. Keep using IndiaLD and tell all your friends about us.

Finally, one of our tried and true carriers had some routing problems to Airtel mobiles in India last night. We bumped around the routing order and have fixed the issue.