Intense activity on breeding beach
It pays to be patient! A rainy day at the haulout site. with the seals in the sea, made ID work a tough prospect, so I headed off to the breeding beach. Covered in boulders, adult seals are extremely well camouflaged. At first sight, the breeding beach looked empty, but there were several females floating around just offshore. I walked further round the cliff and sat down for a patient wait. The male approach and was repelled by each of the females in turn, one splashing her fore flipper on the surface of the water and howling agressively. A short while later, there was the most extraordinary sound - multiple high pitched howls of hungry pups intermixed with the deeper growls of adult females getting too close to each other. These eerie and primeval echos are so evocative and confirm the presence of pups in the caves. It is so rare to hear these sounds, they're usually masked by crashing waves and roaring winds. Then came a sharp clatter of boulders being moved on the wave cut platform. I scanned for signs of movement & spotted a beautiful lone female making her return journey to the sea from feeding her pup.
Remote breeding beach (Far left) : Flippering the male away (Mid left) : Sea bound, having fed her pup (Mid right) : Dominant male (Far right.)
A second female appeared from the sea & a stand off followed as the 2 females blocked each others path. The young dominant male distracted both of them. A third female approached the group and the male, spoilt for choice, decided his best place was in the sea! Two of the females were keen to access the caves to feed their pups, but the third was much more ponderous and hung around for ages on the boulders. She appeared lethargic and her body shape, being bulbous around her lower abdomen, may mean she was yet to have her pup and was looking for a suitable site to do so. As the tide continue to rise, making access to the cave easier for the females, I returned to check an adjacent cove and spotted the now fully moulted and weaned pup sleeping semi submerged in a shallow pool.
S102 (Far left) : 3 females with the darker male (Mid left) : Pregnant female? (Mid right) : Weaned & moulted pup rests in pool (Far right.)
Returning home, I was able to compare photos of all the seals observed with the ID photo database. The dominant male is DP108. His youth implies he is an inexperienced beachmaster but he has already successfully mated with the mother of the weaner photographed above. One of the females was also identified as S102. She was last seen on 13/09/03 at the same location - almost 2 years ago to the day!