Harbor Seal Highlights 🦭💦
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Wildlife Wednesday // May 21st, 2025
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This Week in the Wild
Flashback to April on the Central California coast. A muddy shoreline and harbor seals… everywhere. Dozens of them, scattered across the banks. Some were sleeping in the shallows, others watching us back with sleepy eyes and twitching whiskers. Harbor seal pups stayed close to their mothers - tiny bodies bouncing along the shore.
From the boat, we counted at least thirty on just one section of bank. The naturalist said this was normal for pupping season. Some had hauled out hours ago based on the dried mud on their backs. They didn't stir, and didn't seem to mind us being there. Maybe a head lift here and there to check the boat, but that was it.
It was one of those moments where you're not the observer so much as part of the landscape. You don't always get to see this many in one place, especially with pups. The whole mudflat was basically a seal nursery.
Pupping season at Elkhorn Slough will absolutely be a repeat event.
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