You may remember my excitement last month when I saw my old friend and neighbor, the Friendly Seal, appear with her pup on a foggy morning on July 16. It was confirmation Friendly Seal is a female and tells me she is fully adult after several years of growing up in my local bay. I’ve gotten to know her from many encounters kayaking in the bay and walking on the beach. It was October 2013 when she introduced herself, choosing to play with me and my purple kayak on a sunny afternoon. Friendly Seal was a fun-loving youngster at the time, 1 or 2 years old. I described my history with her, including pictures along the way, with links to earlier FS stories, in The Daily Bucket: Friendly Seal is a mom!! back in July.
Last month she brought her new pup into what I think of as her “home bay” from a haul-out unknown to me (as a youngster she cruised this bay almost daily though for the past year her visits have been more occasional). The pup was fairly big but still dependent on her for help, climbing up onto her back when tired, and calling out to her in seal baby-talk “maaaa maaaa”.
Hoping to see them again, I made daily visits to the bay. Seals prefer cruising this bay at high tide — I guess the fishing is better — but I didn’t see them, and began to get worried. Research on Harbor Seals shows that 50% of pups do not survive their first year, from starvation or predation, and new mothers are less successful than older moms, whose larger bodies provide a greater fat supply for nursing a pup. Pups grow a pound a day on mom’s milk which is about 50% fat; meanwhile the moms lose as much as half their body mass during the 4-5 weeks of nursing (research-based information about Harbor Seals in general, and Salish Sea seals in particular, can be found in this comprehensive profile, and at www.pinnipeds.org/...).
Ten days later, on July 26, I caught sight of Friendly Seal, fishing alone. Either she had left her pup at a haul-out, a safe rock somewhere, or something had happened to her pup. My unease grew. I kept watching the bay.
Then on July 31 — hallelujah! Friendly Seal and her pup spent a good long while in the bay and it seemed pretty clear that FS was showing her pup how to fish. Mr O and I floated in the bay in our kayaks for an hour watching the lesson, marveling at the life and skill of these wonderful creatures.
The pup follows Friendly Seal, taking deep breaths before the next dive
Sometimes the pup splashed in the shallows, playing, mom nearby. Most of the time they were underwater. The bay is 5-10 feet deep here at high tide, with an eelgrass meadow in the middle. Fish and crabs are abundant, judging from the activity of seals, otters, mergansers, osprey, cormorants and other birds. Harbor Seals cruise along a few feet above the muddy bay bottom, feeling with their extremely sensitive whiskers for movement below. They will grab and swallow their catch underwater. Seals are able to dive much deeper and longer than they do in this shallow bay, but there’s no need here — it makes a great training ground for a baby seal. They dived for a few minutes at a time, emerging quietly at the surface elsewhere.
Friendly Seal nuzzles her pup at the surface. They stayed close together throughout the fishing session, where I could see them anyway. The pup has a distinctive double marking on its head so I’ve been calling it Two-Rings Pup.
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Two-Rings was well aware of our presence, watching us fixedly. Harbor Seals see as well as we do in air, and invariably keep an eye on humans nearby (when they are awake).
Two-Rings watches us during a surface interval as mom floats nearby
The pup evidently found us as unthreatening as Friendly Seal does. While the pup rests on the surface, FS watches us.
Two-Rings surfaced about twice as often as FS. It takes a while for baby seals to develop lung capacity, and muscle strength and coordination. When they were both at the surface it was easy getting them both in the picture frame...they stayed close together throughout.
Mom and pup check out the bay and beach between dives.
FS showed steady dedication to her pup and the lesson, with lots of physical contact. But I did not see the baby riding on her back or attempting that the way it had 3 weeks earlier. And the pup is noticeably bigger. Very likely it was weaned or in transition by now. Biologists call babies at 1-2 months, “pups”. For the next year they are known as “weaners”. If Two-Rings was born when most are in this area, late June to early July, it was on track for weaning now, at 5 weeks.
While we were watching Friendly Seal and Two-Rings fishing, another seal cruised the bay nearby. It swam close enough to us a few times so I could get a good look at its face. It had the dark eye rings of a youngster (and a boo-boo on its nose). FS had these dark eye rings in 2014 and 2015 but she doesn’t now. Like the Friendly Seal had watched mom and pup pairs in the bay in those summers, this youngster was watching FS and her pup.
Lone youngster seal
On August 4th we saw a mom & pup pair again in the bay. Unfortunately, they weren’t FS and Two-Rings. I could tell both by the mom’s facial markings and by the fact that the pup was much younger than Two-Rings. But the lone youngster from the FS&TR fishing session was present that day too. It watched the new pair, at times coming close. The seal mom ignored the youngster.
Lone youngster watches the mom&pup pair. This pup spent a good deal of time riding on her back and dived for only short intervals.
Like Friendly Seal, this mom was aware of our presence but not afraid. Seals can move much faster in water than humans in kayaks can, and they know it.
This pup was not calling, so I’d guess it’s about 3 weeks old, and still nursing. The bay is a quiet protected spot for resting.
The little pup mimics its mom, dozing in the water, noses upward. We can see the difference in face shape. This pup will grow as quickly as Two-Rings, doubling its body mass in a month.
I haven’t seen Two-Rings since July 31. On August 6 I saw Friendly Seal by herself, and again on the 7th. On these occasions, she was in serious fishing mode, spending long sessions under water. She needs to rebuild her body mass after 5 weeks of nursing.
Where is her pup? I don’t know. If Two-Rings is weaned he or she will hang around the group haulout site, wherever that is, and socialize mainly with other weaned pups. Independent so soon, weaners have to find their own fish. It usually takes a week or two before they get competent enough to stabilize their weight and start gaining rather than losing. Friendly Seal spent some quality time teaching Two-Rings how to fish in this bay. Perhaps her big pup will return to fish these rich waters, now it knows where the bay is located.
I am watching for Friendly Seal and Two-Rings every day.
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