OK - I'm back in the tropics which means time has expired on the mystery mammal post from this morning without anyone guessing successfully. Here's the beastie in question (the close up was the underside of its mouth as it lay belly up sun bathing (taken from behind the safety of the reserve fence)):
Its a newborn Grey Seal, Halichoerus grypus. Bull Grey Seals represent the largest mammal to come ashore in the UK and at this time of year the seals come ashore in numbers at their rookeries to pup and mate (and its important they d0 - almost half the world's population live around the United Kingdom) Here's an adult to show you what the adorable ball of fluff above matures into.
Luckily I spent some time in the UK last week very close to the wonderful reserve of Donna Nook where these shots were taken and witnessed pretty much all aspects of the seal life cycle in the course of 3 hours or so. More shots to come illustrating the amazing natural history of these animals.
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