Some of our seals at Worms Head

Some of our seals at Worms Head

Our seals

September and October are still a great time to see seals on our trips to Worms Head, if the weather holds out. The usually sheltered north side of the Worm is where they like to hang out, resting and digesting their meals.

Our record number of seals seen at any one time at Worms Head this year is 57!

If you’d like to book a trip with us you can do so online here, or if you’d prefer to chat to us just give us a call on 01792 348229.

Some of the GCA team training to be Marine Mammal Medics with life-sized model animals

If you come across a pup which you are sure does need help, before you take any other action yourself or approach the animal, call the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR).They are a UK charity dedicated to the rescue and welfare of marine animals. They have trained animal medic volunteers around the country who will quickly be able to attend the scene. Find out more about them here.

Our skipper and some of our boat crew have trained as Marine Mammal Medic volunteers with BDMLR so will get a call to attend any rescues in the South Wales area.

Rescue hotline during office hours: 01825 765546

Out of office hours: 07787 433412

She recognizes her pup by smell

The mother-pup bond is strong

Having said that we often get stormy weather in the later months of the year and sometimes pups can be washed off beaches and separated from their mothers. Without its mother a white-coated pup will not survive more than several days.

The bond between a mother seal and her pup is a strong one, but human interference can cause the mother to abandon it. The mothers are fiercely protective of their babies and can be very aggressive if they feel threatened. Both adult seals and pups will bite so, unless absolutely necessary to do otherwise, these beautiful wild animals are best admired from a distance and dogs kept away.

This same mother seal heads into the sea shortly after giving birth, perhaps to wash herself or feel more comfortble. Her pup needs to stay dry on land.

This mother seal has just given birth

Seal rescues

As you wander the coastal paths of Wales during autumn you may well look down in to one of the bays and see a little lone seal pup there. It may appear to be on its own, but it's very likely that Mum will be nearby, keeping an eye on her baby.

So far the answer is no- a small percentage of the studied seals have pupped in a similar location to where they were born, but the vast majority have not.

This is 'Big 7' one of our easily recognizable seals at Worms Head who we see regularly

Recent scientific studies have been investigating whether female seals choose to pup on the same beach or area where they were born. This research has taken a while to complete, not only because it is difficult to track seal movements when they travel so far, but also because female seals do not start to breed until they are 5 or 6 years old.  

A completely un-intrusive method of tracking seals has been developed now. A national database of seal photos taken all around the country and photo-recognition software allows us to identify individual seals by the unique markings in their fur. You can read more about this and our involvement in it in one of our previous blog posts.

'Heart' one of our well known seals at Worms Head. She looks pregnant, where does she go to give birth?

Where do our seals pup then?

We've been interested for quite a few years now to know where the seals we see regularly at Worms Head go to have their pups. We don't know, but we suspect many of them swim over to Ramsey Island to give birth, which is only about 50 miles from the Worm as the crow flies. But seals do move about a lot and have been tracked travelling hundreds of miles over the course of several days, so some of our ladies may journey long distances away to have their babies.

Worms Head, the causeway between the island and the mainland is covered by the sea at high tide

Gower pups

Here on Gower we also occasionally see pups along our coastline too. They tend to be hidden away at the back of beaches towards the western end of the peninsular. Not many of Gower's beaches are inaccessible to people, and mother seals usually go back to tried and tested pupping locations, so we don't get many seal births here.

Sometimes pups are born on the Worms Head causeway, probably to inexperienced mothers. As the causeway is covered by the sea at every high tide, any pups there will be washed away.

Ramsey Island's beaches are inaccessible to the public

A very relaxed-looking female seal on Ramsey Island

Female seals gather on the island's beaches and in caves in the autumn to have their babies; up to 700 pups are born there each year. Whilst the island is open to visitors, the beaches are not accessible and are out of bounds to the public, so the seals must feel safe there.

Ramsey Island, in Pembrokeshire

Beach babies

As the pups need to be born on land and spend their first few weeks mainly staying warm and dry, the mother seals must find a secluded place to give birth which is above high tide. Ramsey Island, off St. David’s Head in Pembrokeshire, is an RSPB nature reserve. It has the largest Atlantic grey seal breeding colony in Wales.

This mother is looking rather thin after nearly three weeks of feeding her pup without feeding herself

During this pupping period the mother seal does not feed herself as she needs to stay near her pup to protect it and feed it regularly. Because of this the mother will lose around a third of her body weight. So when three weeks are up Mum will leave her pup and go off in search of food. She is also likely to mate with the dominant male at this point.

The pup hasn't learned how to find food on its own or how to interact with other seals yet, but now it has to fend for itself for the rest of its life.

A juvenile female seal lies next to a fully grown female at Worms Head

Several weeks after birth they also moult their white coat, underneath which is their dense, warm adult fur. This fur has a pattern unique to each seal, which remains unchanged as the young seals grow into adults.

Grey seal pups grow quickly, this progression takes just 3 weeks. First photo: newborn pup, Last photo: fat pup almost completely moulted its white coat

Big mommas

The pregnant females will have spent the summer eating a lot and building up their fat reserves. New born pups weigh around 10-15 kg. As mammals, they feed on their mother's milk which in seals is very rich in fat- around 60% (in comparison to cow's milk which is only around 4% fat). This means the babies can triple their body weight in just 3 weeks; they progress from small, wrinkly-skinned, wide-eyed creatures, to very fat torpedo-shaped blobs.

Some pups are well camouflaged with their white coat on some beaches

Pups look quite scrawny and vulnerable as newborns but they will grow quickly

One chilled out little seal pup. This one is only a few days old as it still has its umbilical cord attached.

Atlantic grey seals have their pups during autumn and winter. Here in Wales pups start appearing along our coastlines from September onwards.

Mother seals give birth to just one pup a year. They are born on land with white fluffy fur, and stay out of the water for the first few weeks of their lives.

Read on to find out more about these enigmatic creatures and what to do if you discover a seal in need of help.