I’ve had a few busy weeks in Orkney as mum pup pairs have not stopped showing up at the different haulouts. The dynamics at the different haulouts have changed as weeks have gone past. At the start, I could observe a good number of mum pup pairs, easily identifiable as mums would not be far from their small pups in dry land or following them into the water when the little ones decided it was time for a swim.
Lately though, the haulouts are a bit quieter, with pups not calling constantly for their mums as some weeks ago. Despite being quieter, the pups keep the haulouts quite active, as they often go for swims, check on the neighbors and try their luck while testing the other seals’ patience when trying for a free feed from random females! In the following video you can see a good number of pups resting with a few adults, one of them being one of our tagged females.
The other thing is that, compared to a few weeks ago, there are now more pups seen on their own, maybe waiting for their mums to come back from a foraging trip. On a couple of occasions I’ve seen the awaiting pups being reunited with their mum, and the consequent long-awaited opportunity to suckle finally happening.
Females encourage their pups to suckle by positioning themselves on their side as well as using one of the fore flippers to guide the pup towards the nipples, as you can see in the video below. Identifying mum pup pairs is getting harder, as pups are more and more independent, and the interactions between adult seals and pups are not always that easy to interpret. For example, the mum pup pair featuring in the next video had been grunting at each other and play-fighting using the fore flippers for a while before the video was taken. At that point I would have thought it was an adult seal getting annoyed to have to wrong pup or just a pup too close!
When pups want to suckle, they are seen repeatedly touching mum with the nose and mouth, probably to make them turn around so that they can suckle. That does not always have the desired results, as mum has the last word. In the next video, a pup, who is behind the adult seal (its mum) has been suckling for quite a while before starting the video. Wanting more, the pup starts pushing mum from behind, but mum is not up for more suckling, making her point very clearly.
Suckling is not always a straightforward business, as we saw earlier in the month with a pup having to climb over a tiny rock to be able to suckle. Apparently, the mum’s bellybutton can be quite confusing during feeding! Check the wee pup below suckling and checking on the bellybutton in case that also provides milk!
Feeding time is exhausting, and there is nothing better then a nice nap after it, both for mum and pup!
Written by Monica