Grey Seal colony

This week I visited a breeding Grey Seal colony. Its latin name Halichoerus grypus means "hook-nosed pig of the sea". These were the types of views I was expecting to get of adults and their pups..

so imagine my surprise when I found pups sprawled across the footpath

This population are Eastern Atlantic Grey Seals. About half the worlds breeding population of Grey Seals are found around the coast of Great Britain.

The breeding site is known as either a rookery or haul-out. The pups are born with a white coat and start to moult at 2 - 3 weeks old.

They will suckle from their mother for about 21 days. After about 7 weeks the pups make their way to the sea and begin to feed.

One of the pups proved to be incredibly friendly and came so close that it was infact too close for me to then photograph.

I did get a nice piece of video of it though.