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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

One-Eyed Seal Pup

I was walking along a south shore beach today and spotted a seal pup. Upon closer inspection, I noticed it had only one eye. It was a very small pup, perhaps 30 or 40 pounds if that. It seemed very healthy and active. And the wound did not look infected. This is the second seal I have seen within the past few weeks with only one eye. I have never seen this before and I wonder what is causing this. Does anyone know why this is?

Here are some pictures I took of the seal pup today-





2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think its a birth defect or an injury?
Dan

Anonymous said...

Martie: the answer to that question was on the intercom on our flight over Muskeget with Kristin Ampela, the seal-scat researcher. Remember? she pointed out that gulls and other birds will try to peck the eyes out of the baby seals, in order to make them bleed to death and become a meal. The one-eyed seals may be ones that took a hit to the eye but lost the battle of the eye, won the war.