Seal colony welcomes first pup of the season at former Suffolk weapons testing site Orford Ness

A former Cold War weapons testing site has welcomed its first grey seal pup of the season.

Seals first started breeding at the remote shingle spit at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast in 2021 following a reduction in visitors because of the pandemic.

The recent birth marks the fourth consecutive year of breeding there and the National Trust said it believes the blubbery mammals are now Suffolk's first breeding grey seal colony.

It is thought the seals have spilled over from well-populated colonies in Norfolk, including at Blakeney Point and Horsey Gap.

Matt Wilson, countryside manager for the Suffolk and Essex coast at the National Trust, said: “We’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this year’s seal pups.

“Since October, our team have been avidly monitoring the shores of the Ness from a safe distance and performing regular counts of the adult seals, with some records showing over 400 adults.

“The first pup has arrived around a week earlier than last year, which is something we’ve observed in rookeries elsewhere in the UK.”

More than 130 seal pups were born at Orford Ness last season, which runs between October and March when the site is closed to visitors.

The first 200 adult seals arrived in 2021 and rangers have recorded an annual increase in numbers as the colony has grown.

Female grey seals, known as cows, usually return to the same place each year to give birth.

Pups typically weigh around 13kg at birth and are covered in thick white fur, which keeps them warm but is not waterproof.

They remain on the shore until they have shed this coat, revealing sleek waterproof grey fur underneath, by around three weeks.

Glen Pearce, Orford Ness’s property operations manager, said they “held off talking about” the seals until earlier this year “because we wanted to give them the best chance of survival”.

“We’re asking people to refrain from visiting out of season and to avoid using drones or other aerial equipment in the area,” he said.

“We really hope visitors will continue to work with us to help protect the colony, which is such a brilliant wildlife success story for Suffolk.”

Orford Ness was used as a military test site during both world wars and into the nuclear age, before the Ministry of Defence sold it to the National Trust in 1993.

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