looduskalender.ee

The breeding period at our monitor site is at an end for this spring, and the adults have disappeared to the sea to regain their lost energy reserves. The pups still wait for some time before they get into the waters. At the moment they live on their stored-up fat, and transform it into muscles.

 

Grey seals living in bushes is a quite rare sight in the world; obviously this is an instinctive behaviour to avoid raptors. At the same time the shrubs offer protection from sharp sunshine. Animals with such dense and dark coats have more problems with keeping their bodies cool than with warming them.

 

Altogether 60-70 grey seal pups were born in the monitored colony; the mortality rate was quite low, since there was enough room. The first pups saw daylight already in mid-January. Also, the weather during the birthing time was rather cold, so diseases did not spread. Seals have practically no immune defence system at birth; they get the necessary antibodies from their mothers’ milk.