By Kirsten Larcombe – wildlife assistant, RSPCA West Hatch

It’s my favourite time of year again, seal season!

Most of our summer babies have been released so the centre is now full of hedgehogs that are struggling to get enough weight on for the winter, and seals.

We currently have seven seals in our care. Two are Common or Harbour seals and the rest are Grey seals. Despite their name, Commons aren’t in fact common.

It is the Greys which you are most likely to spot along our coastline. The two species have quite a lot of differences in both appearance and behaviour but the most noticeable would be in reference to a seal pup’s lanugo coat.

The lanugo coat is the white fur which I’m sure most people picture when you think of a seal pup. The Grey is born with this white coat, whilst the Common loses it before birth.

We currently have two ‘whitecoats’ at the centre who are in the processes of moulting, so although in my opinion still rather cute they do sort of resemble your favourite old teddy that has seen better days with patches of fluff missing all over!

One of these pups is called Dougal (our theme for naming this year is children’s TV programmes), who came up to us from Cornwall with the help of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, or BDMLR.

We work closely with members of BDMLR throughout the seal season and we would definitely be lost without their help.

Dougal was found on a Cornish beach covered in puncture wounds, from either other seals or potentially dogs. Dougal is turning out to be a straightforward seal. She has been in our care for less than a week and has already started feeding herself.

This is great news as it means once she has completely moulted and reached around 18kg she can move to one of our outdoor pools and be mixed with other seals.

From here and once she has reached 35kg she can go for release. In total a seal will roughly be in our care for around 2-3 months, depending on its progression and initial injuries.

One of the reasons I enjoy working with them so much is that whilst you put so much into their rehabilitation, taking them for release is a fantastic reward.