A seals personality can be described as playful and inquisitive. Despite their cute appearance we should always appreciate they are wild mammals. Many seals return to our shores year after year and with each sighting we gain a further insight into their lives and their individual personalities.
They have unique fur patterns (like our fingerprints) and these distinctive patterns and shapes have been an important way to identify individual seals, some of which we have followed and monitored for several years. It's often the case that these distinctive markings resemble a shape, a person or a character which lends itself to a handy identifying 'nick-name'.
Here are some of our favourite examples!
Without doubt our favourite seal, Easter Bunny, has a heartwarming and inspiring story to tell. This juvenile male grey seal made his first appearance in our hometown in April 2020, seen with industrial strength plastic around his neck, which initially seemed like it could lead to a life limiting outcome.
Within days, he vanished, and we feared the worst for him. However, a week after his disappearance, Easter Bunny re-emerged in the same location, miraculously free from the entanglement. His reappearance on Easter Sunday, combined with a distinctive bunny rabbit shape in his fur pattern, led to us naming him 'Easter Bunny.'
Over the years, we have seen him regularly. Initially, he was always found in the same location, following a regular pattern of sightings. During this time, he exhibited quite antisocial behaviour, often keeping to himself. Yet, as time passed and he grew from a juvenile to a sub-adult male, Easter Bunny's confidence began to flourish.
Easter Bunny's journey continues to inspire us, and following his life story means a lot to us. We look forward to continuing this journey with him for many years to come.
This beautiful adult female seal returns annually, and has amazing markings making her easily identified. However, this winter she confused us with her darker fur patterns, and an air of confidence.
She's a stunning seal, and we look forward to seeing our future encounters with her.
This adult female has been known to us since 2013. We don’t know how old she is, but she is easily identified from her stunning markings.
A few years ago a seal was recorded in Padstow in Cornwall begging for fish from a boat. She was identified as one of our seals, but more incredibly she was seen by ourselves back here in South Devon only 3 days later. That’s quite a journey.
This beautiful female seal is living a nightmare every day. We first encountered this seal in March 2022, and she had clearly been entangled for some time.
It looks like it’s a gill net entanglement, but what’s around her neck is a rubber banding, which is used to hold the weight for a large gill net to the seabed.
It’s a nasty entanglement and she is seen regularly, we monitor her sightings alongside BDMLR and with the help of Dart Harbour Authority, local tourist boats, and visitors and locals alike.
Unfortunately as a physically capable seal, she’s alert and always in inaccessible locations. On day we hope to be able to help her. For now, recording her sightings is the best we can all do.
On Boxing Day 2024 this was an encounter we did not wish to see. We knew from our Christmas Day survey, that this seal did not have this entanglement 24 hours prior to this sighting. It was devastating.
This juvenile seal was one of a small group of young seals seen playing and socialising in the area. Worse still, there were many people enjoying the mild weather, enjoying post Christmas walks in the area, who all thought this seal was wearing a festive collar. This ‘collar’ comes from a specific brand of marine boat anti-fouling. This ‘collar’ could be life limiting for him. One playful moment with a bright bit of marine debris, and his future could well be cut short. We need to raise awareness. So many items are potentially life limiting for seals, plastic bags, ropes, angling lines, clothing, wire, plastic banding from boxes, umbrellas, jumpers - even to toilet seats.
Seals are playful and curious, but as they grow, entanglements will get tighter and they can suffer incredible pain and distress. We wish this little seal all the best wherever he now is.
Cornwall Seal Sanctuary Tagged Seal SL131 Yellow Tag
This juvenile seal was rescued in Cornwall by the BDMLR in December 2019, being nursed back to health at the Cornwall Seal Sanctuary, before being released in March 2020.
Prior to her release rescued seals are tagged with plastic rear flipper tags (with an identity number) which make them identifiable if seen in the wild.
We’ve seen her a number of times in various locations, though this winter she spent much of her time in our local marina. She’s quite a character, preferring her own company rather than hanging out with others.
We are a South Devon charity that monitors and protects the seal population across South Devon
