Monk seals molt during the end of summer and into fall. Females usually molt first, specifically the younger ones, and those that did not have pups. Juveniles also molt during this time, the healthier ones molting first. Then after females have weaned their pups, and fattened up again, they come back to the island to molt! Males invest so much energy into trying to mate with females, so they tend to molt during the end of summer, and into the fall. Molting only takes about a week! Monk seals are the most closely related to Elephant Seals, so it is no surprise that they molt the same way - catastrophic molt. They shed sheets of old skin/fur, not just the hair itself, and it only takes about a week. And they are a shiny, silver color when they are done! They are so sleek when they are molted, and sometimes you can see scars or natural bleaches that you usually can't see, so surprise!
Of course when they are molting, the seals are very aggro! They usually stay hauled out for the duration of molt, sometimes going into the water to cool off. But they are not feeding, and tend to hang out in the same area for the whole time. They are also very stinky - probably all the oils! They seem to be very uncomfortable during molt - pretty understandable, because I would be really itchy if all my skin was sloughing off at once! So we are especially careful not to disturb molters...but sometimes they come up to camp!
Here is a sub-adult male hauling up at camp, and scratching himself on anything available:
TE50 also molted at camp...and rubbed all up on my tent, and knocked down my tent poles!
Almost finished molting:
Close up of old pelage being molted, and the new silvery coat underneath:
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