The Story of the Amazing Mama Seal

The other day I sat mindlessly watching TV until a Discovery Channel program on seals caught my attention. The story centered around a mother seal and her new cub living in a colony of seals. As the cub grew the mother slowly introduced him to the water while I learned from the announcer that seals are not born knowing how to swim but must learn this skill. You could see the absolute joy of the baby as he hits the water but his mother was very cautious. The camera soon showed us why – lurking in the waves right off the beach was an Orca whale, one of their biggest predators. He hide in the waves waiting for an opportunity to swoop down. At one point the baby decided to go further out in the water and enjoy himself but his mother nudged him back. He, however, was very determined and tried to quickly maneuver around his mother’s rotund body. Watching the little seal move with his small and more agile body I thought he was going to win the battle but his mother was not giving up. Thankfully, she turned out to be faster and more determined than she appeared.

It was intense watching this life and death battle. At one point I thought, My! this cub is even more stubborn than our little people. In my family we have super animated children. They have all inherited very strong and determined personalities. So watching the fight that this mother seal put up hit a strong inner note with me. We are not alone even the animal kingdom has some uncooperative babies. The mother with all her awkwardness finally won the battle, with some force she toppled her little one on its’ back and he finally decided to head back to the sand with his mother.

Unfortunately, some mama seals were a little too lax with their parenting skills and allowed their cubs to wonder off alone to the shore. We watched the Orca scoop them up and disappear. By the time the mothers made it down to the shore there was nothing left of their progeny. They peered out into the ocean and I can only imagine what their thoughts were.

After writing my seal story, my friend Cheryl Hanna sent me another interesting story about seal mothers. Little did we know what great adoptive parents they turn out to be. Check out their story, http://news.discovery.com/animals/sea-lion-mothers-adopt-orphan-pups.html.