Source: Radio New Zealand
A pup using its mum, Hipi, as a pillow. Shaun McConkey / NZ Sea Lion Trust
An Otago colony of sea lions has hit a major milestone after a successful breeding season which saw the birth of 38 pups.
For the first time in more than a century the Otago Pakake/sea lion population has delivered more than 35 pups.
If there were five consecutive seasons of at least 35 new pups it would gain official breeding colony status.
Pakake were the rarest sea lions in the world and until the early 1990’s they were effectively extinct on the mainland.
Shaun McConkey, the chairperson of the New Zealand Sea Lion Trust, told Checkpoint, the breeding season had been “amazing” and it was fantastic this milestone had been reached so soon as breeding in the area had only begun in Christmas 1993.
Of the 38 new pups this season, McConkey said just over 50 percent were female and right now they were moving to a creching site.
Hipi and pup just lounging around. Shaun McConkey / NZ Sea Lion Trust
McConkey said the females and their pup would usually gather at places where there was calm, shallow water so the pups could learn to swim.
“Last season there was a bit of a drop [in numbers], a lot of our females didn’t have pups, so quite a few continued suckling their their pup from the previous year, a lot of them had the year off, so they were certainly rearing to go for this season.”
Nearly all of the colony were descendants of a sea lion named Mum, who died in 2010. In 1993, Mum and her pup appeared in Dunedin and the Department of Conservation confirmed it was likely the first pup to be born on the mainland in over 150 years. She went on to give birth to 11 pups in the Dunedin area.
McConkey said it was estimated 36 of the 38 new pups were descendants of Mum.
“We’re starting to get some females coming up from a breeding colony at Stewart Island. When they arrive in Otago and find there are other females here some of them decide to stick around.”
He said there were one or two females who had recently joined the colony and started having pups.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
