In my Secret Place

A weaned grey seal pup on North Rona, hiding from the adults on the colony now his mum has gone back to sea.

Grey seal pups are weaned and left to fend for themselves at 18 days old, and during this time they put on about 40kg in blubber mass to sustain them until they catch their first fish. Their mums don't have anything more to do with them after those 18 days are up.

The weaned pups often hang around a few weeks on the colony, hiding away from the adults who would attack and bite them. They need this time to convert the blubber into muscle to swim with (also, with so much blubber they would be far too bouyant to dive to catch fish!)

Weaners as we call them are good fun and very curious/playful. Its lots of fun working with them!

Please note, this photograph was taken from a hide during a routine survey of the breeding colony, please do not approach or disturb breeding seals with pups. Mothers will abandon pups if people come too close, and then the pups will starve to death.

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