Grey seal

Centuries of hunting and exploitation reduced the UK population of grey seals to a mere 500 individuals by the 1970s.

In 1970, a new ban on culling during the breeding season, and successful anti-sealing campaigns, allowed the species to gradually recover. Now there are about 125,000 grey seals around the UK, making up nearly 40% of the world's population. About 6,000 of these are found in Welsh waters.

They split their time between beaches, sand and mud banks along our coast, where they rest, mate, give birth and moult, and the Irish Sea, where they feed on a variety of fish, shellfish, squid and octopus.

Some of the best places in Wales to see grey seals are on the islands (notably Ramsey, Skomer, Skokholm, Grassholm, the Tudwal Islands and Bardsey Island), probably because they're away from people.

You can see the pups spending their first 3-5 weeks of life on beaches from September to December. In those weeks they will double in size and lose their white fur.

Grey seals are bigger and have longer noses than their spottier, snub-nosed cousins, common seals.