Lots of wind, not many pups

I arrived on the island late Friday afternoon. This is my second time researching on the Farnes as I researched mother pup behavior briefly for my undergraduate degree in 2012. The research and experience from this has left me wanting more from seal research and when asked to come back to Newcastle University to study for my Masters I just had to take the opportunity to work out here again.

After a year researching in America the grey seal pupping seasons is here and so am I!

I was scheduled to come over a week ago but the weather has been against us. High winds and swells have meant the boat hasn’t been able to get to shore but a small weather window has allowed me to get here. Now I’m ready to research for the next 2 months.

A little background.

My initial love for nature came from my family in England and the States and especially my Dad always being so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about it.

I graduated from Newcastle University in 2013 majoring in Marine Zoology and have since lived in America for the last 9 months studying Northern fur seals during pupping season in Alaska. I also spent a month tagging killer whales along the Pacific North West coast with NOAA.

I have an avid interest in Marine Mammals and focusing my research in this area. My supervisor Dr Per Berggren has been instrumental in helping me explore and delve into my passion with marine mammals and will also be supporting me with this research.

So what will I be writing about, studying and doing out here?

I will be writing about life on the islands, accommodation, conditions, the positives and the negatives, and all the things I will be doing here with as many pictures of pups, mothers, bulls and other wildlife.  Updates on the seal population, weather, interesting animals that visit and of course the pups. I will write pieces on Grey seals themselves, their behaviour and most importantly the breeding season, but also on my research and methods.

My main focus while out here will be to see the differences in mother/ pup pair behaviour between different shore and inland exposures and substrates and also temporally, how they differ throughout the breeding season.

I will also look at population dynamics across the islands with the help of time lapse photography and use non-invasive methods of determining energy transfer from mother to pup throughout the breeding season here on the Farnes.

The Farne Island grey seal pups often have an annual high mortality rate, so specific measurements and locations will be recorded and age and sex of deceased pups to see if any conclusions can be drawn to further understand this mortality.

High winds are expected throughout this weekend and early next week, no pups are currently on Brownsman (where I am living) but a few are already scattered across other islands. I will focus these next few days on setting up equipment and trailing methods to perfect the study once we get pups.

The next blog will give background on the island and the current seal population as well as any updates.

For more information please contact:
Robert (Bob) Hunt
Email:  r.hunt@ncl.ac.uk
Marine Science MPhil Student