{"id":284585,"date":"2025-11-14T19:25:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/284585\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T19:25:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T19:25:17","slug":"farne-islands-newborn-grey-seals-counted-in-their-first-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/284585\/","title":{"rendered":"Farne Islands&#8217; newborn grey seals counted in their first survey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Collette HoweNorth East and Cumbria<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762859290_651_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/8f79ecf0-bfdf-11f0-bbea-2df62eb90585.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"PA Media A seal pup with white fur looking towards the camera and lying on rocks on the Farne Islands.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>The first pup was spotted on Blue Caps near Longstone Lighthouse in October<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The first grey seal pups of the year born at one of England&#8217;s largest colonies will be the first counted in an annual survey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The National Trust, which manages the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast,  carries out the yearly census to monitor the mammals&#8217; numbers and health and to gather data to help direct conservation efforts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The charity has been using drones since 2018 to provide more accurate data with minimal disturbance to wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Area ranger Sophia Jackson said &#8220;each pup born here is a testament to the conservation work we do&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The annual survey will run through the autumn and once complete, data will be analysed by Newcastle University with results expected next spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The Farne Islands is home to one of the largest grey seal colonies on the east coast of England. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">More than 3,000 seal pups are expected this season.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Visitors can watch from boat trips but are not permitted on the islands during the pupping season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762859290_651_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 gUePlo hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/17f272f0-bfe0-11f0-bbea-2df62eb90585.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"PA Media A white seal pup leaning into its mother on the beach of the Farne Islands.\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA\"\/>PA Media<\/p>\n<p>The seal survey will continue through the autumn<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Ms Jackson said: &#8220;Each pup born here is a testament to the conservation work we do and the resilience of this species in the face of environmental challenges particularly due to rising temperatures and warming seas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">By using drones, rangers would be able to detect pups which might otherwise be missed and analyse images quickly while minimising disruption to colonies, the trust said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">The annual monitoring began in 1952 by Grace Hickling MBE, a ornithologist and naturalist. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">Her lifelong dedication to the Farne Islands helped shape modern conservation efforts in Northumberland, the trust said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 eZyhnA\">It added her work established what was now the world&#8217;s longest-running grey seal population study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collette HoweNorth East and Cumbria PA Media The first pup was spotted on Blue Caps near Longstone Lighthouse&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-284585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}