Ramsey seal update
| 20 |
| Sep |
| 2009 |
Ramsey's Atlantic grey seals are now well into their breeding season and we have pups dotted all the way around the island on storm beaches and rocky ledges. In addition to several days of glorious sunshine the sea has been unusually calm, which is great news for young pups.
Last year saw a significant shift for some females giving birth earlier than usual. The seals do have some control (as far as we know a couple of days or so) over when they give birth and we've often seen large numbers of pups born after storms.
Since the breeding cycle is roughly a year this means that this year's pups are also being born earlier than we would have expected years ago. We've both been working around Ramsey for well over 20 years and can remember the days when it wasn't uncommon to struggle to see many seals in early to mid August but these days we're seeing really good numbers. The main breeding season now seems to be starting in August.
The other shift last year (which was even windier than this year!) was that a number of females came round to the sheltered east side of the island to give birth rather than using the west side. Seals usually return to the beaches where they themselves were born to give birth to their pups but perhaps the sustained difficult conditions last year (the toughest season we've worked around the island in terms of weather) was enough to persuade them to use the east side. This year we have again seen far more pups born on the east side than in previous seasons so the seals appear to have decided that it's a good bet.
