Excellent year for Grey Seal births at Donna Nook

A Lincolnshire seal colony has enjoyed an excellent year for the number of Grey Seal pups born.

Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust (LWT) said 2,205 pups had been born at Donna Nook this season, just shy of the record number of 2,214 in 2020.

A Grey Seal pup at Donna Nook in Lincolnshire (Clive Daelman).

The seals spend most of the year at sea or on sandbanks but come ashore to give birth late in the year. The reserve recorded this season's first birth on 30 October and the last on 21 December.

In 2011 and 2013, dozens of young pups died when tidal surges hit the coast, but the colony has otherwise enjoyed growth in most years.

LWT said it would usually see a 1-5% increase in the number of pups each year, helped by the reserve having a very low mortality rate due to the seals being fenced off from the viewing area and being able to get a long way from the incoming tide.