So far the weather has been rather benign, at least for the humans on the island, dry and sunny mainly! Not so good for the seals though it would seem. From our past studies we know that breeding grey seals in the UK seem to suffer somewhat in dry and unseasonably warm conditions. We often see mothers seeking out pools of water, even rather rancid, black, muddy wallows, for ‘bathing’ in, but also for drinking from – and they seem to do this much more in warm, dry conditions. Often mums will leave their pups in the search for water and travel 50 or more metres away from their pup. This increases the risk of the pup wandering and the mother being unable to relocate her pup on returning from the pool. Courtney found some interesting patterns of behaviour when comparing the last two field seasons; a more typical cold and wet 2015, followed by a dryer and warmer 2016. Courtney’s data suggested that while smaller and medium sized mothers were less affected by warmer weather, the heavier mothers tended to spend less time resting in warmer conditions, likely due to increased travelling to pools.
A nice muddy mess to wallow in (can you spot the flipper tag too?)
So what does this season have in store for the seals? As I mentioned, so far it has been quite dry, though perhaps not as warm as in 2016. Perhaps critically the island is much wetter – it seems that it has been quite a damp summer on the Isle of May, and the pools that the seals like to gather in and around are fairly full, and the soil is moist, and the vegetation much more green than at the start of the previous two seasons. So, time will tell how the weather will impact on our study mothers this year.
A young pup playing in the autumn vegetation
Green vistas over the ‘tennis Courts’ and ‘Cross Park’. one of our main study sites.
Studying Seals 