The camera is located on a small strictly protected islet off Vilsandi island, which is located west of Estonia's largest island Saaremaa, which is part and name giver of Vilsandi National Park.
The islet is used by grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) to give birth to their pups during winter - around January to February. The pups are born after a gestation period of about 11 1/2 months. At birth their weight is around 14 kg. Being suckled by their mothers with extremely fat-rich milk (consisting up to 60% fat) they grow rapidly and within one month they shed the soft silky white fur they are born with and leave the beach to learn to swim and fish. Mating time also falls into this period of time. Sometimes we can see the bulls fight for the females on the beach, a dangerous situation for the pups.
Large seal bulls can reach 2.5–3.3 m in length and weigh betweeen170–310 kg ; the smaller females are about 1.6–2.0 m long and weigh between 100–190 kg. Males are generally darker than females, with lighter patches and often scarring around the neck. Females are silver grey to brown with dark patches.
White-tailed eagles are regular visitors on the islet and can be seen flying by or sitting in front of the camera.
The new camera system is still in a testing phase, which means there can be malfunctions and interruptions of the stream. But in all the new system shows a much better quality of image. Due to the lack of electricity on the remote islet, the sole power source are solar panels, which is the reason for the camera being shut off over night. If there are not enough sunny days to reload the batteries, there also will be no transmission.
The stream is provided via YouTube and can be found on Teetormaja's YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFjD6G ... rKhL_aEsmA
If you don't find a stream, please check here for a new address!
The Youtube stream for the moment can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A1Wi3sOy7g
IceAge
at the same time.