Pictures: Baby seal pup explores her new aquarium

Calypso the seal pup at Tynemouth's Blue Reef Aquarium. Credit: Blue Reef Aquarium

A baby seal pup has been exploring its new surroundings at Tynemouth’s Blue Reef Aquarium.

Calypso, the harbour seal, was born at the North Tyneside wildlife attraction in July, but only recently has she been able to do her first tour around the outside of the seal pools.

  • Harbour seal 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.

Although she is still too small to join the other seals in the main Seal Cove, Calypso has been enjoying long walks around the aquarium, and has even done a tour around the outside of the seal pools on one occasion.

Blue Reef Aquarium’s Rosie Wiggin said: “Calypso is doing really well, she has almost doubled her birth weight but we won’t introduce her into the main pool until she reaches the recommended weight of 30kgs.

Calypso the seal pup enjoying playing with a hose at Tynemouth's Blue Reef Aquarium Credit: Blue Reef Aquarium

Calypso is the third harbour seal pup to have been born at the aquarium. Benji and Cody, who were born in 2013 and 2014 respectively, are now living at Deep Sea World in Scotland.

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