Grey Seal pup recordings
Recordings of Grey Seal pups in the dunes by Horsey beach, Norfolk, UK – December 2012.
These seals are about 3 to 5 weeks old; 3 weeks after they are born, their mother leaves them and they crawl from the beach into the dunes to shelter against the wind whilst they wait to shed their fur, after which they dive into the sea. They tend to leave for the sea to get food when they are about 6 weeks old.
Just a little side-note: I did not provoke the pups in any way, all I did was get close and record. It sounds like they are in distress, and they probably are considering their circumstances as described above, but I did not do anything in particular to make them create these growls and burps and hisses. A warden who stays by the colony to make sure people don’t harass them did come and ask what I was doing but let me be after he confirmed all was OK. /disclaimer
Geek data: 96/24 into Tascam DR680, using MKH30/NTG3 in MS, converted to mono leaving only the M channel (NTG3). I also recorded some with the Sony D50, but did not post these here.
At times real baby noises. Very surprising!
Wonderful, Daan!
You are lucky to be able to get so close to them. You’d never be allowed to do that in the U.S.A. It would be a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Thanks for sharing the recordings.