Seals Around The Coast And Waters On Visit To The North West Highlands Of Scotland

Tour Scotland travel video, with Scottish music, of seals around the coast and waters on visit to the North West Scottish Highlands. The grey seal, Halichoerus grypus, is only found in the North Atlantic, the Baltic Sea and the Barents Sea. As one of the rarer seal species worldwide, its entire population is around 400,000 individuals. About 40% of all grey seals live in UK waters, and about 90% of this number breed at colonies in Scotland. Harbour seals can live up to 20 to 30 years. Adult harbour seals are about 1.5 m in length and can weigh in the region of 80 to 100 kg. It’s hard to tell males and females apart, but males are slightly larger than females. Harbour seals have a dog like head, with a rounded head, steep forehead and eyes to the front of their face. Harbour seals are widespread around the west coast of Scotland and throughout the Hebrides and the Northern Isles, but are found in fewer numbers on the Scottish east coast. The harbour or common seal is widespread in the northern hemisphere. There are five sub-species, and the European Phoca vitulina vitulina can be found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. There are about 100,000 harbour seals in Europe. About 30% of this population is found in UK waters, and 80% of these in Scottish waters All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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