Nobody can be quite sure whether Odysseus really did exist or whether his countless adventures are the stuff of legend. However, one thing is fro certain: the only living beings in the Aegean whose sounds could have inspired Homer to invent the sirens of the antique mythology are the monk seals. The piercing, high-pitched calls of this only seal species in the Mediterranean Sea sound super-natural and mysterious to us humans. The Mediterranean monk seal is one of the most elusive European mammals. Little is know of their habits. For a long time, some zoologists did not even want to believe that there are any seals in the Mediterranean Sea. It was as late as the mid-1970s that the biologist and filmmaker Dr. Thomas Schultze-Westrum drew attention to the Mediterranean monk seals, and the threats that face them, with sensational footage. The pollution of sea waters, over-fishing and habitat destruction also affected the seals' most remote refuges.

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