Grey seals to be filmed at night for the first time

[Blackleaf]

Grey seals are to be recorded at night for the first time.

Pioneering filming techniques are set to be used to capture a record-breaking seal colony in north Norfolk for the new series of the BBC's Winterwatch.

Military-grade thermal imaging will be used for the first time to film thousands of seals on the Blakeney Point National Trust reserve at night.

Producer Bill Markham said the technology allowed for "an intimate view" that was previously impossible.

More than 1,756 pups have been born at the reserve so far this winter.

The number has already broken the 2013-14 season total of 1,566 with at least another two of months of pupping still to go.

More than half of the world's grey seals live around Britain's coastline.

The new series of Winterwatch, which looks at British winter wildlife and which will be hosted as usual by Chris Packham, Martin Hughes-Games and Michaela Strachan, will return live from the Highlands on BBC on Monday 19th January.


Winterwatch is filming at Blakeney for the new series in January 2015


Pioneering filming techniques are set to be used to capture a record-breaking seal colony in north Norfolk for the new series of the BBC's Winterwatch.

Military-grade thermal imaging will be used for the first time to film thousands of seals on the Blakeney Point National Trust reserve at night.

Producer Bill Markham said the technology allowed for "an intimate view" that was previously impossible.

More than 1,756 pups have been born at the reserve so far this winter.

The number has already broken the 2013-14 season total of 1,566 with at least another two of months of pupping still to go.

An additional 700 pups have been born further around the coast at Horsey which is "slightly up" on the same time last year, said Eilish Rothney from the Friends of Horsey Seals group.

BBC Winterwatch is set to investigate activity in the Blakeney seal colony at night

The Blakeney Point seal colony has been growing year-on-year for more than a decade. Winterwatch guest presenter Iolo Williams will be investigating the nocturnal activity on the National Trust reserve

Hundreds of seal pups are also being born further around the Norfolk coast at Horsey

"In peak pupping season there can be up to 45 pups born a night but we don't really know what goes on under the cover of darkness so we're bringing our thermal imaging camera to Blakeney Point to see what's going on," said Mr Markham.

"The technology allows us to use this thermal imaging camera as a wildlife camera with such high definition we can zoom in and film wildlife with that intimate view we didn't used to get with the old thermal imaging system."

Winterwatch has previously used thermal imaging technology, but this is the first time a seal colony will be filmed at night

"There might be a bit of illicit nookie in the sand dunes," said wildlife producer Bill Markham. (Above) A cheerful-looking pup

Ajay Tegala, one of the National Trust rangers responsible for counting the seals twice a week, said: "We have never looked at the rookery at night before, so whatever is captured will be of great interest and contribute to our knowledge and understanding of these fascinating mammals.

"The bulls develop a harem of up to six cows, based on their age, strength and fighting ability... and the seals mate again soon after giving birth."

Wardens have so far recorded 1,756 pups, 533 more than at this point in the pupping season last winter

'Illicit nookie'

For the first three weeks the white-coated pups will stay with their mothers feeding on milk.

Over this time they will triple in weight before moulting to reveal their distinguishing grey marks and waterproof coat for the first time.

Mr Markham added: "The dominant males will fight off other males to keep the harem to themselves for mating - but if another male isn't big and strong he might try to sneak in.

"In the daytime he might get spotted. My guess is at night time this might happen more frequently so there might be a bit of illicit nookie in the sand dunes which we might pick up on camera."

Winterwatch returns to BBC Two on Monday 19 January live from the Scottish Highlands as our wildlife faces up to the most extreme and challenging time of year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012msk2


BBC News - Blakeney Point seals to star in BBC Winterwatch

 

[BaalsTears]

Don't Canadians kill seal pups for their pelts?

 

[Nuggler]

That practice (killing seal pups) was banned years ago.

Do some reading when you learn to read, numbnuts.

 

[MHz]

Really?? I thought is was the skull and bones replacement (after university=gray) and some wisdom had seeped in. Should film 'them' at night too, I hear some can be caught wearing a Tux on Tuesday, back to your regular programing.

 

[taxslave]

Anyone know how much salmon all those seals kill every day. I've heard anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds each.

 

[Blackleaf]

Don't Canadians kill seal pups for their pelts?

The British are a gentle race of animal lovers. That sort of barbarity may be practised by more barbarous races like the Canadians, but in Britain we love grey seals and anyone who butchers any grey seals to death will be given a lengthy prison sentence.

 

[Nuggler]

The British are a gentle race of animal lovers. That sort of barbarity may be practised by more barbarous races like the Canadians, but in Britain we love grey seals and anyone who butchers any grey seals to death will be given a lengthy prison sentence.

Do we get tea and crumpets in the hoozegow?

 

[captain morgan]

The British are a gentle race of animal lovers. That sort of barbarity may be practised by more barbarous races like the Canadians, but in Britain we love grey seals and anyone who butchers any grey seals to death will be given a lengthy prison sentence.

How gentle.... Truly living in a harmonious relationship with nature

 

[Blackleaf]

How gentle.... Truly living in a harmonious relationship with nature

Vermin that are a very real pest to farmers (especially their chickens), something which the trendy Left-wing London metropolitan elite didn't understand when they banned hunting with hounds in 2005. They know nothing about life in the country.

 

[bill barilko]

Where I live Seals are good only for stopping bullets.

 

[MHz]

. . . and making candles, . . . if the whole animal is utilized then seal burgers that taste like salmon it is. At least the fish farm will have no complaints from their 'customers' until harvest week. Now about those seal-skin covers for bald tires in the winter, . . .

. . and totally shaped so they are ready for the spit with only some marinate time

. . . and 11teen lb steaks for only $6.95 if you let them age in the skin until just before a natural end.

 

[petros]

Vermin that are a very real pest to farmers (especially their chickens), something which the trendy Left-wing London metropolitan elite didn't understand when they banned hunting with hounds in 2005. They know nothing about life in the country.

We aren't in the Victorian age any longer. Those vermin foxes keep mice and rats in check.'Super rats expected to outnumber humans two to one by next year' | Daily Mail Online

 

[MHz]

Vermin that are a very real pest to farmers (especially their chickens), something which the trendy Left-wing London metropolitan elite didn't understand when they banned hunting with hounds in 2005. They know nothing about life in the country.

omg, the poor beagle now know his fate, aw.

 

[Blackleaf]

Those vermin foxes keep mice and rats in check

Try telling that to the farmers who lose chickens and therefore money because foxes go in at night and carry away chickens, which hunting with hounds helped to prevent.

And thanks to metropolitan Labour's ban on hunting with hounds in 2005, the fox population in Britain has sky-rocketed, even in towns and cities. Believe it or not, there are an average of 28 foxes per square mile in Britain. And this has led to an increase in people, especially babies and young children, being mauled by them, the little Koupparis twins in Hackney, east London, in 2010 being a famous example.


Fantastic? No, Mr Fox is a vicious pest


By Rory Knight Bruce
8 June 2010
Daily Mail

Not so cute: Fox can be very aggressive

Our modern society can be hopelessly sentimental about foxes.

Too many urban dwellers adopt a soft-hearted attitude to these predators, who are foolishly seen as cute, cuddly and clever.

It is an outlook that can be seen in whimsical films such as the recent smash hit The Fantastic Mr Fox, based on the book by Roald Dahl.

Similarly, Labour’s ban on fox-hunting encouraged a mawkish eagerness to romanticise this aggressive creature – a pathetic instinct that was symbolised when Labour MP Mike Foster held up a furry toy fox outside Parliament to celebrate the passing of the legislation.

I wonder if all those animal rights champions feel quite so pleased with themselves after the tragic news that an urban fox in North-East London has appallingly mutilated two young twin girls.

This incident exposes the claims from the so-called animal rights brigade that urban foxes don’t pose a danger to humans or pets.

And this is not the first time they have attacked children.

In July 2002, a fox entered the sitting room of Peter and Sue Day in Dartford, Kent, and tried to grab their 14-week-old baby son Louis in his cot.

The boy was left with severe bite marks on his head and arms.

‘We are now afraid to leave him alone,’ the Days said.

Just like the rural type, urban foxes are omnivores with a strong sense of their territory – qualities that help to make them dangerous.

In towns and cities, around a third of their diet comprises food they have scavenged from our rubbish, with the balance made up of rats, mice, pigeons and other small animals they have hunted, as well as worms and insects. In certain seasons, they also eat fruit and berries.

But domestic pets can also be targeted, particularly as the large new wheelie bins make it more difficult for foxes to scavenge in our garbage. Cats, birds, rabbits and even small dogs are all at risk.

In one gruesome case in Edinburgh, the heads of three pet cats and two rabbits were found in the garden of a suburban property where 11 foxes had taken over a summer house.

‘Anybody who thinks they’re cuddly creatures is living in cloud cuckoo land,’ says Bruce Lindsay-Smith, an experienced marksman and trapper who disposes of about 70 urban foxes a week.

‘I’ve had clients who have lost dogs, cats, gerbils, chinchillas and even a £1,500 koi carp to foxes. I know two people who have been bitten in their beds.’

It is not just the predatory attacks that are a problem. Equally worrying is the health hazard created by urban foxes.

These unpleasant animals stake their territory by urinating and defecating in gardens, hedgerows and sandpits – and their deposits can be every bit as toxic as the faeces of feral dogs or cats.

One of the most common diseases they transmit to man is Toxascaris, which is caused by a parasitic hardy roundworm carried in their droppings.

Symptoms include stomach upsets, headaches, sore throats, wheezing and, in extreme cases, blindness. There are reportedly around 100 new cases of Toxascaris every year.

Pauline Koupparis was visibly upset as she left her home, saying one of her twins was 'not doing so well'

Foxes also carry Weil’s disease, which can turn to jaundice, and sarcoptic mange, which leads to skin infections in dogs and cats and even scabies in humans.

What this all adds up to is the inescapable conclusion that the urban fox is a pest that needs to be controlled.

Mr Reynard belongs in the countryside, roaming wild across field and dale, not spreading disease and fear in built-up areas.

In one recent case in the London suburb of Bromley, a group of foxes were chewing through the brake cables on cars because they adored the taste of the fluid inside.

This left the cars with inoperable brakes. Yet when residents demanded a cull, the council refused, saying that the foxes were ‘part of our wildlife’. Once more, sentimentality had triumphed over reason.

From my own experience of life on a Devon farm, I know that it is impossible for the fox to live in easy harmony with man. My left hand still bears the scars of a bite from a vixen which I tried to rescue from an earth which had caved in.

My family has also lost two beloved terriers to the fox – one through mange, another through a characteristically vicious assault.

Yet we let the urban fox flourish. There are estimated to be about 50,000 of them in Britain, with 30,000 in London alone – 28 per square mile.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the population is not actually any bigger than it was 15 years ago, because it was badly hit in 1995 by an outbreak of sarcoptic mange which devastated its numbers. But in recent years, it has staged a significant recovery and is now returning to its previous record levels.

So, given all the problems that the urban fox causes, what can be done to counter this menace? By law they cannot be gassed, poisoned or killed in lethal traps. The only effective methods of control are either shooting or the use of humane traps, but these have to be done by professionals. It is an offence, for example, to use a firearm near a highway or inhabited property.

One thing is certain – we cannot allow the situation to continue. Previous generations never sentimentalised the fox, instead holding him to be an enemy of mankind. One 16th century chronicler wrote that ‘his nature is deceitful, malicious, crafty, covetous, rapacious, perfect in all villainy’. We should learn from this. In reality, there is nothing fantastic about Mr Fox.

Read more: Hackney twins fox attack: Fantastic? No, Mr Fox is a vicious pest | Daily Mail Online
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And by some remarkable coincidence of the highest order....
​

Is this what they mean by political big beasts? Wily fox makes it to Number 10 Downing Street


Downing Street has had some cunning residents over the years, but perhaps none quite as slippery as this cheeky fox, who scampered through this morning. The creature caused quite a stir when it became trapped in the famous street ahead of a planned appearance by Prime Minister David Cameron. The animal is one of thousands of urban foxes living in the capital, which some say are becoming increasingly bold in their hunt for food.

The bold animal ran around in front of waiting photographers shortly before David Cameron made his way to Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons

A police officer guarding the Prime Minister's central London home watched as the fox strolled past

A visitor to Downing Street is confronted by the creature, which became trapped in the gated-off road for a few minutes this morning

After scampering around the famous street for several minutes, the animal disappeared into the capital


Wily fox makes it to Number 10 Downing Street* | Daily Mail Online

 

[BaalsTears]

That practice (killing seal pups) was banned years ago.

Do some reading when you learn to read, numbnuts.

Well that's a shame. Why did the Canadians ban the practice?

 

[MHz]

It was cutting down on the number that were swept out to sea by freak storms.

Somebody forget to switch on the AA, what if that was a trojan fox?

 

[skookumchuck]

The British are a gentle race of animal lovers. That sort of barbarity may be practised by more barbarous races like the Canadians, but in Britain we love grey seals and anyone who butchers any grey seals to death will be given a lengthy prison sentence.

Would that be the same British that gave us the "Company of gentlemen adventurers to Hudson's Bay"? Thus creating the fur trade? Only one of a huge number of less than kind practices you brought to this continent.

Well that's a shame. Why did the Canadians ban the practice?

Some french actress did not like it. Not to mention several other actresses who went from wearing the furs to damning them.

 

[MHz]

Only one of a huge number of less than kind practices you brought to this continent.

In hindsight that was Phase 1 of a predetermined campaign that would see the flag waving over every horizon they encountered until no new horizons existed, or is it just an accident it turned out like that, . . . in any harbor any of their boats have ever dropped anchor in.

 

[BaalsTears]

I have a big pair of dice covered in Canadian seal fur hanging from my rear view mirror. It's sad to think I won't ever be able to get a new pair of dice.

 

[Sal]

I have a big pair of dice covered in Canadian seal fur hanging from my rear view mirror. It's sad to think I won't ever be able to get a new pair of dice.

pity

they're like balls, ya have 'em for life

once ya lose them...well...yeah :lol: