Yesterday my sister told me about a National Geographic video that caught her attention because of the misleading title. The title was "Seal Sends Text Messages". Even I got easily interested just by reading the title. But as you have read it, it's misleading.When you read the title, it seems like it is about a seal that knows how to send text messages. You can imagine a seal with its claws holding a phone and starts pressing the numbers and letters and finally sends the message to your phone. But it's actually not it.
Anyway, the video is about a lost seal that was found and raised in a school for seals by the MOm foundation in Greece, that is accessible to the natural habitat of the critically endangered monk seals.
It was later released back into the wild. In order for scientist and experts to learn if the seal that was raised by humans can survived its natural habitat or if it can thrive to its original home, they put a device on its back, a cellphone to be specific, that will send text messages back to the lab. The text message contains the location of the seal including the speed of its movements and the depth of its dives.
The monk seal will molt its skin after 6 months and that is the time the cellphone is removed from its back. By that time, the people who raised it can only hope it has already thrived for the life in the open waters of the Mediterranean sea.
Even though the title of the video is a bit misleading, I still commend National Geographic for such a nice clip and helping raise the awareness of conserving this uber rare species of seals, the rarest mammal in the planet. And even though seals are not legal to be acquired as pets, I still adore them especially whenever I see them swimming in movies and video clips, as if they were gliding in water. And if given the chance and the knowledge to raise it, I would be glad to have one as a pet.
