AN Arctic creature made a very rare appearance in the Firth of Forth recently.
A ringed seal was seen near Skinflats Lagoons on February 15, with the images posted on Facebook – but no subsequent sightings have been made.
This animal is a wide-ranging species, and often the most common species of seal in the Arctic, but it is very rarely seen in Scotland.
In fact, there have been fewer than 30 recorded sightings of the Arctic pinniped since 1900.
According to the news site Birdguides, the last was an immature male taken into care in mid-September 2021 at Cove Bay in Aberdeenshire.
