Which seal species is native only to the Hawaiian Islands?

The Hawaiian monk seal is the seal species native only to the Hawaiian Islands. Its scientific name is Neomonachus schauinslandi, and the species is endemic to the Hawaiian archipelago.

Most Hawaiian monk seals live around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, though a smaller and growing population uses beaches and coastal waters around the main Hawaiian Islands. The species is an earless, or true, seal: unlike sea lions and fur seals, it has no external ear flaps and cannot rotate its hind flippers beneath its body to walk on land.

Its Hawaiian name, īlio-holo-i-ka-uaua, means “dog that runs in rough water.” The English name “monk seal” refers to short hairs around the head that were thought to resemble a monk's hood. The species is also Hawaii's official state mammal, a designation made in 2008. It is often confused with the harbor seal because both are true seals, but harbor seals have a much broader Northern Hemisphere distribution. Hawaiian monk seals face threats from entanglement, disease, habitat pressures, and predation by sharks.