Newborn Cody is cute addition to Tynemouth aquarium

A new attraction has made an appearance today at Tynemouth’s Blue Reef Aquarium.

The tiny harbour seal, who has been named Cody, was born this morning (July 11) at the North Tyneside attraction.

Both pup and mum Loffe are doing well and keepers are delighted with their early progress.

Pups are born on land but are able to swim and dive within hours. They remain dependent on their mother’s milk for up to four weeks and can expect to more than double their birth weight each week during that time.

Cody is only the second seal pup to have been born at the aquarium and joins Benji, who was born almost exactly a year ago.

With his arrival the aquarium now has six harbour seals. All are captive bred, with adult females Loffe and Selina coming from Norway and the males Marvolo, who is the father of both pups, and Sofus coming from Denmark.

The harbour seals share their outdoor home with a pair of California sea lions, Lucy and Finn.

Both California sea lions and harbour seals are part of the pinniped family, along with walruses. The main differences between the two species are that sea lions are sleeker looking and have large front flippers which allow them to move about easily on land.

Harbour seals are smaller and more sausage-shaped and appear much clumsier out of the water.

Seal Cove contains more than 800,000 litres of seawater and features man-made islands, underwater caves, diving pools and a cascading waterfall.