Seals: Nature can be cruel

by Darren

One of the rules that you must understand and obey when photographing wildlife is that unless your actions or presence has directly caused an event, you must allow nature to take it’s course. It’s a heart-wrenching and painful position to be in, but it’s our job to observe wild animals, not determine the outcome. We might feel sorry for a baby impala that is being chased by a female cheetah but by intervening we may cause her cubs to go hungry and possibly even die.

The most painful moment I remember is while watching this seal pup which I introduced you to earlier. It was up at Donna Nook and the beach had been closed due to RAF activities so we were restricted to seeing the seals from behind the fence in the nursery.

I saw the pup crawl behind a mound of grass and sand, and I saw the female whom I assumed to be the mother approach it but I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. High above the mound this poor little thing flew in the air, up and down. Each one was like a knife stabbing in to me. I can only assume that the female wasn’t it’s mother and therefore saw the pup as a threat, but she was the only female in the immediate vicinity without a pup (they give birth to a single offspring each year).

Whatever had just happened, it then proceeded to crawl, slowly, up across the grass and sand to where I lay on the other side of the fence. It was coming to me for attention, even comfort when it was possibly moments from a very early death. It felt horrible, but if it’s mother did return and the injuries were superficial, she would have detected human scent on the pup and abandoned or killed it. What I saw may even have been the result of such an encounter earlier in the day!

I spent much of the following week thinking about this young seal and wondering the outcome. Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust told me that they took a pup out of the enclosure and to the local seal sanctuary later that day so hopefully this was the one. I’ll never know for definite. Before moving them, they do wait some time after discovering an abandoned pup just in case the mother returns.

But I’m still in favour of that rule. Look, don’t touch. It’s not for us to interfere when we don’t know the potential consequences of our actions.