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About This Episode:

This reserve is a sanctuary for the world’s largest breeding colony of Cape fur seals, with up to 210 000 seals present during the breeding season in November and December. Sustainable seal harvesting takes place in the reserve annually under the auspices of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, which also sets the quota of seals to be harvested.

The coastline of Southern Africa is the only place in the world where you can find Arctocephalus pusillus pusillus, or the Cape fur seal, as they are more commonly known. They fight, mate, reproduce and fish in the Cape Cross Seal Reserve, home to the largest breeding colony of these seals on the planet, with at times up to 210,000 seals present during November and December. But it hasn't always been a cacophony of bleats and barks filling the air.

In 1486, the celebrated Portuguese seafarer and explorer, Diego Câo, erected a padrâo, which is a stone pillar topped by a cross, establishing his country's claim to the territory.

Two years into the voyage, and after planting the padrâo at Cape Cross, the crew returned home without their captain who had disappeared into thin air. All of the documents relating to his expedition were lost in a fire and the search continues to find of his whereabouts.

This particular coastline, which includes the infamous Skeleton Coast, held little or no interest from any passing vessels.

In 1980, a number of improvements were made near the cross on the initiative of the then Director of the State Museum in Windhoek, CG Coetzee. An additional cross, (manufactured from Namib dolerite) was erected on the exact site where Diogo Cão originally planted his, and was unveiled on 11th October 1980. Architect François Malan designed 3 circular and half-circular platforms.

Cape Cross is situated 53km north of the Atlantic coastal fishing town of Henties Bay. The replica of the original cross, erected by Cão at Cape Cross in 1484, as also the site of the original cross, were declared national monuments on 1st November 1968. The 2nd replica of the padrão does not form part of the proclaimed monument.

Many ships were wrecked on this barren Skeleton Coast over the 400 years after Cão landed. It wasn't until 1884 that the first sightings of Cape fur seals were recorded off the coast of Southern Africa, substantiated by entries into the log book of the German cruise ship, the Möwe. When guano, the waste left by fish-eating birds used as fertilizer, was discovered in 1895, people began to settle in Cape Cross.

A point of interest driving towards the seal colony on the left of the road, is an unnatural, curved line running between a granite outcrop and the edge of a saltpan. The line is in fact the remains of the first railway track in Namibia, all 21km of it, used to transport guano and seal skins to ships in the bay.

The edge of a saltpan, mentioned in the previous paragraph, was where ships once brought in provisions, but all that remains of the guano industry today is rusted pieces of metal and a graveyard near the reception office at Cape Cross.

Visitors can view the seals from a 200m walkway, constructed of recycled plastic suitable for wheelchairs. Other facilities include information points, toilets, a picnic spot, (if you can handle the smell with your baguette) and reception. Permits are available on site and drivers please note that there is no petrol and very limited water here.

As in all walks of life, it is the females who get the rough end of the stick when it comes to giving birth and rearing their off-springs. Females breed in synchrony once a year and after an 8 month gestation period, give birth to 1 pup in late November/early December. Within an amazing 34 day cycle, 90% of pups are born at Cape Cross and they weigh between 4.5 - 6.4kg and are 60 - 70 cm in length, similar in size to human babies, (but with no umbilical cords to cut or bottoms to smack!)


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