Isle of May National Nature Reserve

Comment by Elli Carlisle on November 18, 2011 at 15:42

I had a silly moment where I read the title, looked at the picture and then thought 'That isn't a seal!' After that I pulled myself together are really enjoyed looking at hearing about the wildlife (feathered and furred) on the island at the moment.

The post before was interesting too. Any chance you could tell us why seal pups are white? they do stand out a bit!

Comment by David Pickett on November 21, 2011 at 14:22

Hi Elli, glad you enjoyed it, well done for setting it so the blog comes up automatically. Grey seal pups are white as a legacy of originally evolving in the arctic - so it is a polar bear defence really. Harbour seals, the other UK species have evolved under different environmental conditions so their pups aren't white. We only have grey seals on the Isle of May though harbour seals are as close as Tentmuir, just to the north.

Comment by Elli Carlisle on November 22, 2011 at 10:39

Thanks for the explanation David.

Comment by Elli Carlisle on December 13, 2011 at 11:08

Wow seal teenagers are not that dissimilar from human ones - I loved the one in the out building!

Another great blog post David!!

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