The Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) is a large seal found along the northern shores of the Atlantic Ocean including western Europe and eastern North America. These mammals reach an impressive size: males can weigh up to 300 kg and reach a length of around 3 m, while females are considerably smaller. This way, Grey Seals are the largest carnivore of most European countries! They are very good swimmers and prey mostly on fish, but will feed also on other animals including invertebrates (e.g., crustaceans, cephalopods) as well as sea birds and even small cetaceans! Grey Seals can be differentiated from Harbor Seals by their much larger size and a rather pointed head. These fascinating creatures were strongly hunted by fishermen until the beginning of the 20th century and almost disappeared completely from the European North Sea. Nevertheless, since a few decades populations are rising again and today Grey Seals can be found quite readily at several places in the Wadden Sea. I have photographed these interesting mammals on the small German island of Helgoland in May 2014.
Love Love Love this fellow.
hehe – thanks a lot!!
The photo of the cheerful seal is a classic! Lovely photos, the beach looks beautiful too!
🙂 thanks again – I really like Helgoland!! It’s a beautiful island, only half a day journey from where I live and not too expensive to stay… I’d love to visit it again! And seals are really nice to observe as they are very expressive – at least it appears to me!
Thanks for sharing all these delightful seal close-ups. What a treat! The palm over the face is my favorite 🙂
hehe – thank you! I also like that one the best!!
schöne Sachen hast Du hier. Und danke für deinen Besuch auf meinem Blog 🙂
Danke schön! 🙂 Ich werde auch noch öfter vorbeischauen, wenn ich darf! 😉
aber immer doch. Würde mich freuen 😉
Very cute seal! 🙂 We saw lots of harbour seals when we visited Alaska. Also very cute.
yes, you are definitely right – harbour seals are very cute!! I also have a post on them! 😉