A few weeks ago, whilst working in the Canthed Centre at Caswell, Ben found a seal pup on the beach. It was amazingly well camouflaged in the stones, with most people walking on the beach completely unaware it was even there.
Can you spot the seal?
Unfortunately, while most of the walkers didn’t notice, nearly all of their dogs did. It was getting hassled by almost every dog on the beach. Someone on the beach contacted a seal expert, while Ben sat and guarded the seal pup until the seal rescue people came. They stayed and protected it until the tide came back in.
Check out this video taken by Lizzie Daly Wildlife TV (from a distance):
Seals have their pups during the winter, and the mothers often leave their pups on the beach whilst they go off to find fish to eat. It was estimated that this seal pup was only a couple of months old and was probably just waiting for its mum to come back. Unfortunately, it had picked one of the busiest beaches on Gower to nap on! Even grown-up seals spend a lot of time on the shore. In fact, seals spend more time resting out of the water than in the water.
If you ever find a seal on a beach:
- Don’t approach the seal and keep dogs away from it
- Don’t chase it into the sea – let it rest where it is
- If you are concerned about the seal then you can contact the RSPCA hotline on 0300 1234 999
If you want more information on what to do if you find a seal check out https://bdmlr.org.uk/what-to-do-if. If you now really want to see a seal, you can often spot them bobbing around when the tide is high along the path between Caswell and Langland.