Number 37 - Come in your time is up...

We have been photographing female grey seals on Ramsey since 2007 in order to track their behaviour and movements from one year to the next.

Many have distinctive scars on their body which allow us to recognise them more easily. Scars can be caused by living in an ever changing coastal environment, resulting from a collision with rocks or scratches from the beach and some are caused when seals fight with other seals. Sadly, many are caused by contact with marine rubbish and set fishing gear and can result in nasty wounds and constrictions, usually around the neck and head.

Other females are pristine, but we can use their natural markings to recognise them too. Female’s coats are uniquely patterned with black splotches and distinctive shapes which are especially visible when the seal is wet.

One old friend returned to Ramsey to have her pup today. Known simply as ‘Number 37’, this experienced female has been giving birth in Ramsey’s harbour since 2011. If you have ever been to visit us in September you may well have had super close views of Number 37 and her previous pups as you landed from the Gower Ranger. Take a look at the photos from 2011, 2012 and the one taken today. All show the left side of Number 37's head and neck, so you should be able to match up the markings from one year to the next, confirming her identity.

Although she wasn’t seen in 2013, she has pupped here in 5 out of the six years since 2011 and on 4 of those occasions on either the 12^th or 13^th of September. In 2015 she gave birth at 4:30pm on 12 September and today (13 September 2016) she gave birth at 9:30am. Despite the harbour being a very busy place, with boats arriving daily, quad bikes, people and sheep dogs coming and going throughout the day, this seems to be her preferred nursery. And she is cool as a cucumber, not even looking up from her slumber as I drove past this afternoon.The beach here is tidal, so her pups are forced into the water twice each day on the high tide for a swim which can last up to three hours until the tide begins to ebb and the pebbles become exposed once more.

Grey seals have a gestation period of 8.5 months, so in order to pup annually they use a system called ‘delayed implantation’ which means the fertilised egg or ‘blastocyst’ remains free floating in the uterus until the beginning of the new year when it implants in the lining of the womb and pregnancy starts for real. The start of pregnancy is thought to be triggered by changes in sea-surface temperature and the females own body condition.