Seals.

Orkney is home to Grey and Common Seals, Common seals spend most of their time at sea and only come ashore to breed to moult and to rest after fishing. The breeding season for Common seals is earlier than the Grey Seal, they begin to arrive at the breeding grounds in June and most pups are born by the beginning of July. Unlike the Grey Seal, Common Seals are born with an adult grey/brown coat. The pups can swim straight away but stay with their mothers. Grey seals can be identified by their longer straight nose, and head shaped more like a horse than a dog like the Common seal. Their coat tends to be grey and they are larger than the common, the male can grow to 7.5 feet and the female smaller at 5.9 feet. Grey seal cows give birth to a single pup with a white coat, in the autumn, starting in September. Three to four weeks after birth the pup has moulted its coat, and shortly after heads out to sea on its own.