\n Dorset Camera Club member Jamie Lock caught a sighting of this delightful seal off Portland Bill on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Seal off Portland Bill (Image: Jamie Lock)\n<\/p>\n
\n Winter is actually the perfect time to spot grey seals. The UK is home to over a third of the global grey seal population with estimates of around 120,000 – 162,000 individuals and Dorset regularly welcomes visitors.\n<\/p>\n
\n From November to March, many seals \u2018haul out\u2019 or spend time on land on remote beaches.\n<\/p>\n
\n Grey seals do this to pup in autumn and then moult in winter. Moulting is the process in which they shed their fur and even their whiskers and grow a new coat, like replacing a worn coat to stay warm and waterproof.\n<\/p>\n
\n Added to this, winter storms and quieter beaches could make sightings more likely.\n<\/p>\n
\n Remember Sammy the seal – Sammy gained a number of fans and followers that would flock to the beach to get a glimpse of him.\n<\/p>\n
\n He joined paddleboarders and kayakers and hitched a ride on their boards, delighted beachgoers resting on the shoreline and has become quite the tourist attraction.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, despite his friendly nature it is important that people kept their distance as with all seals as he did bite.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dorset Camera Club member Jamie Lock caught a sighting of this delightful seal off Portland Bill on Saturday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-428576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}