LOOK. Rare seal from the North Pole born on Dutch beach, which is immediately closed for days | Animals

Biologist Sander van Dijk of Seal Center Pieterburen explains to the ‘Algemeen Dagblad’ that the birth is unique. “Over the past ten years, we have already received three weakened hooded seals in the Netherlands. What is special now is that a healthy pregnant hooded seal has arrived here and gave birth. As far as we know, this has never happened before in the Netherlands. This may even be the first birth in Europe.”

For now, everything seems to be going well with mother and child. The seal center now mainly hopes to avoid shelter. That is why the police and the army closed off part of the beach for at least four days.

The hooded seal’s nursing time lasts four days, one of the shortest of any seal species. “Klapmuts are record holders for seals in shortest maternal care,” says Van Dijk at ‘NOS’. “In those four days, the mother herself does not eat anything, all care goes to the puppy. The puppies gain an average of about 25 kilos in those four days.”

After nursing, the mother leaves the young alone and leaves. A period of fasting follows for the abandoned pup, during which the little animal occasionally gets some moisture through the ice it normally lies on. Then the animal goes hunting in the open waters of the Arctic region.

In the polar region, a pup sometimes lies alone on the ice for weeks, feeding itself by licking the ice, says Van Dijk. “At a certain point they get so hungry that the instinct kicks in and they go into the water to hunt on their own.” These conditions are, of course, lacking in our regions. “That is why we ask beachgoers to leave the hoods alone. The young only seems to be sleeping a bit, but all kinds of crucial processes are taking place that must not be disturbed.”

At first glance, the two hooded seals on the beach of Vlieland do not require any extra care. But how will the puppy be in a few days? Van Dijk emphasizes at NOS that action is only taken if there is really no other option. “If the puppy gets into trouble, we will of course take care of the animal. We have experience with hoods. What we also think about is, if the pup is doing well, but he needs a push in the right direction, to catch the animal and release it a little further into the North Sea ourselves.”

The seals are located near a training ground of the Dutch Air Force and the police, the Vliehors Range. The police and the Air Force do not want to disturb the life of the hooded seals, the Ministry of Defense reports. They will continue to train, but they will keep the marine mammals in mind.

The hooded cap is on the red list of endangered species of nature organization IUCN (The International Union for Conservation of Nature). The species is listed as “vulnerable”.

LOOK ALSO. Recently, some rescued seals were released back into the wild

LOOK ALSO. Striking images from January, when a seal was spotted at the MAS in Antwerp