Why not go seal watching this festive season

While I don’t expect you to record this weeks species on your local evening walks in Kildare, if you were to make your way to the coast you might be fortunate to observe one of Ireland’s two seal species, the grey seal (Rón mór as Gaeilge) and the common or harbour seal (Rón breacach as Gaeilge).

There are a few features to identify between these two seals, firstly focusing on their Irish names the grey seal is referred to as ‘mór’ meaning ‘big’, a male grey seal can grow up to two metres in length and up to 300kg in weight, compared to the harbour seal, which grows to 1.8m in length and reaches weights between 80-130kg.

Size alone is a difficult identifying feature to use, as often you might only observe one of these seals. Confusingly, the grey seal is actually light brown in colour, while the harbour seal is greyish. Looking at the harbour seals’ Irish name ‘breacach’ meaning ‘speckled’ does help us with identification as the harbour seal is more speckled that the grey seal.

Another feature to watch for is the shape of their heads. The grey seal has an oval head with sloping nose and eyes set to the side of their head. The head of the harbour seal is more rounded with its eyes equidistance between the nose and ears, the nostril slits form a characteristic ‘v’ shape when viewed from the front. Seals main diet consists of fish, however due to reduced fish populations and time of year the type of fish they feed on varies. Seals spilt their time between land and water coming ashore mainly to sleep and rest.

A young seal is known as a pup. After a pregnancy of 9-11 months grey seals give birth on land between late summer into the winter months while harbour seals give birth between June-September. Seals can be found all around the coast of Ireland with estimates suggesting that Britain and Ireland is home to 40% of the worlds grey seal population.

If you would like help identifying a wildlife observation in your community you can contact me on bogs@ipcc.ie.

- Nuala Madigan, The Bog of Allen Nature Centre, Lullymore