A record number of baby seals have been spotted on a five-mile stretch of coast in Norfolk.
A total of 3,796 seal pups have been born so far this winter, while 1,169 adults have been spotted by volunteers.
This year’s figure is almost double the count during the winter of 2019-20, when 2,069 pups had been counted.
Peter Ansell, the chair of Friends of Horsey Seals, said: “It is a sign of a healthy colony. It’s down to the fish. At the moment the North Sea is providing enough fish for thousands of seals and this is a nice place for them to come ashore and do their breeding.”
Every year, between November and January, grey seals come ashore to breed in Norfolk. The seal pups feed on their mother’s milk on the beach for three weeks and grow at a rapid pace. Once the feeding period is complete, the adult female grey seals leave. The baby seals stay behind on the beach until they have shed their distinctive white fur, which normally takes another three weeks.
Roughly half of the world’s population of grey seals live around the British coastline, with Norfolk being an important breeding area. The seal population between Waxham and Winterton attracts thousands of visitors each winter.
“They are very popular with visitors, which is funny because they don’t really do anything. They come ashore and flop down and every few hours the pup nudges the mum for a feed,” Ansell added.
Friends of Horsey Seals has looked after the growing colony in Norfolk since 2012, which is particularly vulnerable to human disturbance as the beaches are easy to reach for tourists.
To ensure visitors can watch one of Britain’s great natural spectacles safely and without disturbing the wildlife, volunteers from the local community carry out shifts during the pupping season to deter people and dogs from getting too close to the baby seals.
The volunteers from Friends of Horsey Seals also provide information about the seals and direct visitors to best viewing spots.
