It’s Wed and we saw the sun today. This prompted much photo taking and we attach the first one of the team.
The guys have been exploring the island while there’s a chance – there are only 8 seal mums and 2 pups in the study area at the minute.
This year is the 21st season in a row we’ve been monitoring this breeding colony. During this time the number of pups born here has fallen from around 1400 to around 600. Finding out the reasons for this decline is one of the reasons we’re here. We’ve started recording activity on the colony but won’t begin full photo surveys to check the identities of who’s here for a while yet.
Sian is hoping to record births in the study area to examine early maternal behaviour to see how this varies (in between making origami animals).
Further updates soon.
Best from the team