{"id":44590,"date":"2024-12-11T10:19:24","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T10:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/orford-ness-seal-colony-thriving-with-lack-of-human-disturbance\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T10:19:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T10:19:26","slug":"orford-ness-seal-colony-thriving-with-lack-of-human-disturbance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/orford-ness-seal-colony-thriving-with-lack-of-human-disturbance\/","title":{"rendered":"Orford Ness seal colony thriving with ‘lack of human disturbance’"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"NationalNational Trust<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Orford Ness in Suffolk is welcoming scores of grey seal pups this winter <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A large colony of seals is thriving on an English coastline thanks to a “lack of human disturbance”, according to the site’s manager<\/p>\n

Orford Ness in Suffolk is the home to the county’s first breeding colony of grey seals.<\/p>\n

The site, managed by the National Trust, welcomes more and more seals during each winter breeding season. <\/p>\n

Matt Wilson, the trust’s countryside manager for the Suffolk and Essex coast, said he hoped the site would rival other UK seal colonies. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"StuartStuart Howells\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The breeding season at Orford Ness is under way with many more pups expected to arrive over the coming weeks<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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This winter’s breeding season, which began in November, has seen 80 pups already born<\/a> with many more expected.<\/p>\n

Since 2021, when the seals first arrived, their numbers have been steadily increasing.<\/p>\n

The site is now home to about 400 seals, up from about 200 three years ago.<\/p>\n

“We’re really lucky,” said Mr Wilson.<\/p>\n

“It’s part of their natural movement of colonies anyway, so they’ve moved down, we think, from Lincolnshire and Norfolk colonies.<\/p>\n

“They’ve formed a breakaway group, found this site and moved into the space we’ve got here.<\/p>\n

“It’s a real privilege to have them on this site and a responsibility, too, for the team here.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"StuartStuart Howells\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The shingle spit is currently home to 400 adult grey seals with this number potentially increasing in years to come<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Orford Ness is a 10-mile long (16km) vegetated shingle spit, joined to the mainland just south of Aldeburgh.<\/p>\n

During the 20th Century it was a military testing site.<\/p>\n

The public are able to visit during the summer but not allowed to get close to the colony. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Wilson said he believed this was a “major factor” in the colony’s success.<\/p>\n

“Even during our open season for visitors, the public aren’t allowed on to this section because the seals are still here through the summer,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a great factor for them, this lack of human disturbance, for what is a really amazing occurrence on this site.”<\/p>\n

Mr Wilson said the spit’s ridges and dips also added a “natural shelter barrier” against bad winter weather. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"JoJo Black\/BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Matt Wilson believes Orford Ness has a range of benefits for the grey seal colony<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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He said the success of the colony was a good indicator of the health of both the species and the marine environment, because the seals would not be there unless there was a good food source for them in the North Sea.<\/p>\n

“We’re certainly hoping it will become one of the hotspots for grey seals around the UK coast,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is such an enormous potential; it is a great environment for them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National Trust Orford Ness in Suffolk is welcoming scores of grey seal pups this winter A large colony of seals is thriving on an English coastline thanks to a “lack of human disturbance”, according to the site’s manager Orford Ness in Suffolk is the home to the county’s first breeding colony of grey seals. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63],"tags":[15459,7916,4660,3951,10314,15458,5327,731],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44592,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44590\/revisions\/44592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}