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Issue 88 2020
Preparing For The 2020 Grey Seal Pupping Season
Photo: Glenn Mingham
As the grey seal colony on the east Norfolk coastline keeps on expanding, the Friends of Horsey Seals (FoHS) have launched an urgent appeal for more volunteers to become seal wardens. Despite a difficult year for everyone with the Covid 19 restrictions, a record number of grey seals are expected to haul out onto Horsey and Winterton Beaches from late October to give birth to their distinctive white furred pups. People come from all over the world to see this amazing natural spectacle. Seals are packed in close proximity, and there is the extra drama of 300-kilo male bull seals fighting each other for
the privilege to mate with the cows. Last year, more than 2000 pups were born. With well over a hundred thousand visitors, the wardens play a vital role to protect the seal colony from unnecessary human disturbance. While most visitors are respectful of the seals’ vulnerability and keep their distance, a number of young seals die each year after people get too close and scare the mother away, leaving her pup to die of starvation. During the breeding season, between November and January, the wardens cordon off the beach at Horsey, not only to protect the seals but
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