The only one

This image of an extremely exhausted Caspian seal pup was sent to Kaspika Caspian Seals Conservation Agency by Bahram Hasanzadeh Kiabi, a professor and former biology lecturer at the Department of Fisheries and Environment,  the Gorgan University of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources, Iran. ‘The pup was found in June 1991 by M. Mehdizadeh, my former student, now an employee of the Department of Fisheries, the Ministry of Agriculture, Iran. The animal was lying on the Caspian coast, near the village of Lareem, which is not far from the city of Babosar in the Mazandaran Province,’ reports B.H. Kiabi. A year later, the image appeared in the pages of Abzeeyan magazine, which specializes in publishing scientific articles on aquatic organisms, and ten years later (in 2012) – on the cover of Foke Khazar book about the Caspian seal.

The image of a Caspian seal pup in Abzeeyan magazine, 1992. © M. Mehdizadeh, B.H. Kiabi.

The image of a Caspian seal pup on the cover Foke Khazar book, 2012. © M. Mehdizadeh, B.H. Kiabi.

Nothing is known about the further fate of the Caspian seal pup abandoned by his mother seal for some reasons. Most likely, he died in a week. The digestive system of such pups, deprived of their mothers’ milk early, is not adapted to digesting coarse food (Badamshin, 1949).

This photo registration of the live white-coat pup, approximately two weeks old, is an unique scientific event, providing indirect evidence that some seals pupped not only on Ogurjaly Island (Ogurchinskiy Island) in Turkmenistan (link), but also in Iran, on the Mazandaran Province coast, the southern Caspian Sea.

‘During my teaching career at Gorgan University (from 1986 to 1996),’ recalls Bahram Hasanzadeh, ‘I frequently went with my students to the Caspian Sea for fieldwork. On the Miankaleh Peninsula (on the southeastern coast of Iran), we found dead seals, measured them, and collected biological samples. The total length of some animals was less than 70 cm (70 c m is a standard length of newborn Caspian seal pups, measured from their nose tip to tail tip – Kaspika’s note).’

The top image: the white-coat Caspian seal pup, about 2 weeks old, in the early stages of moulting. The Caspian coast near Lareem, Mazandaran Province, Iran, June 1991. Credited by M. Mehdizadeh and B.H. Kiabi.