Record numbers of seal pups expected on UK's Blakeney reserve

Climate change has already seen huge floods cause the deaths of many seal pups and rangers like Brooker fear there is little sign of improvement.

Norfolk (UK): It looks like it is going to be another record breaking year for the number of grey seal pups born at Blakeney Point at England's largest colony of grey seals in Norfolk. The population here has rebounded in recent decades.

According to the National Trust, the very first seal pup was born here in the Blakeney National Nature Reserve in 1988.

At the moment there are 69 seal pups napping with their mothers, by the end of the year but park rangers here expect the number to rise to about 4,500. That would be the highest number of seal pups ever recorded in England according to the heritage conservation society National Trust.

Carl Brooker, a park ranger for the National Trust, says it is good news.

"It's like a bonus, it's just incredible to see. There's always something to surprise you. It's absolutely incredible that we can see it growing and growing every year because a lot of the time, particularly if you read in the papers, a lot of it is doom and gloom and we've lost this and we've lost that becomes a breaking point. And we're gaining wildlife every year," says Brooker.

According to the National Trust which owns the land, the number of seals born has already increased from just 25 pups in 2001 to 4000 in 2020.

The Trust says it's difficult to count the pups precisely because there are so many.

Their environment explains why they're thriving, they have no predators to attack them, plenty of food in the North Sea and little human disturbance. For an animal once hunted by humans, this is a great success story.

Now though the species is facing a different threat.

Climate change has already seen huge floods cause the deaths of many seal pups and rangers like Brooker fear there is little sign of improvement.

He says: "It's important, really that that with climate change that we forget too many of these high seas and too much of these things happening in the winter, we are going to lose Blakeney Point. You know, it's just a thing that we have to be most wary of at the moment we're lucky we've got lots of seals here, but it is a fragile environment."

Female grey seals typically live to around 35 years old.

They have their first pup when they are around three to five years old and once they've had their first pups, they return to the same place each year to give birth.

Conservationists say this environment must be preserved if new generations of seals are to continue breeding and thriving here.