KEY POINTS:
A 20-year-old matriarch credited with re-introducing the Hooker's sea lion species to mainland New Zealand after an absence of hundreds of years reappeared in Otago yesterday.
Early this month she gave birth to a pup, which captured the hearts of Dunedin locals.
But a week ago the mother disappeared, and Department of Conservation staff went to extraordinary lengths to keep the youngster alive.
They were unsuccessful, and on Saturday put the youngster down.
DoC communications manager John Gordon said that while staff were sad at the death of the pup, it was "absolutely fantastic" to have Mum back again.
"It's lovely ... but it's also very frustrating. She's lost a lot of weight and is very thin. She looks like she's had a bit of a hard time and doesn't look too well at all."
The matriarch had a cataract in her right eye and the left one was "milky", Mr Gordon said.
Her 16-day-old pup was put down after it was discovered in a coma at St Kilda Beach, to where it had been shifted last Wednesday.
DoC staff had hoped a lactating sea lion dame, "Lorelie", would foster the young pup. It would have been the first known time a sea lion had been fostered by a surrogate mother.
The early signs were promising, with Lorelie feeding the youngster, which then became "much more active and vocal".
Lorelie then took to sea to feed and was expected to return on Friday, but she didn't get back until early on Saturday. "By that time the poor wee pup hadn't had a feed for three days," Mr Gordon said.
"We found him comatose and had to get a vet to come and euthanase him.
"Once an animal is comatose it's not going to be revived."
Mr Gordon said DoC's coastal Otago marine ranger had done "everything humanly possible" to save the pup.
"Jim Fyfe did an amazing amount of work trying to save the pup and I know he's very disappointed at the outcome. But, on the positive side, we've learned a lot and will be that much better informed next time something like this happens."
Little was known about Hooker's sea lions, Mr Gordon said.
"We're not even sure how long they live. Although, about 30 seems to be the absolute outside."
The seal pup was buried by Taieri Mouth residents and local Maori on Saturday.
"They took him back to Taieri Mouth, where he was born, and buried him in one of Mum's favourite sleeping spots."
Mum gave birth to the pup on January 2 or 3 and stayed with him for five days before disappearing.
She was sighted at Taieri Mouth again until lunchtime yesterday.
"It's very sad, but we did everything we could," Mr Gordon said. "There's no way the pup could have survived her absence at that age."
Dunedin author Neville Peat, who wrote about the matriarch in his 2001 book Coasting - The Sea Lion and the Lark, described the sea lion as "a real star of Otago wildlife".
"We owe a huge debt of thanks to Mum," Mr Peat said.
"She's the local sea lion matriarch and the first we know about to produce pups on the mainland for several hundred years."
Mum was first tagged on the Auckland Islands in 1986 before migrating to Otago about 1990 and had her first pup at Taieri Mouth on New Year's Day 1993.
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
