大象传媒

There are an awful lot of seals around British coastlines, but they鈥檙e not always easy to see. But on Orkney all Bill Oddies has to do is walk down to the shoreline thinking, wonder if there鈥檚 any chance of seeing a seal? Oh, there鈥檚 one, yes, oh and another, and another, and another, and another. It鈥檚 absolutely wonderful. There鈥檚 nothing on Earth that can relax like a seal. Here we鈥檝e got both species of British seal - the grey seal and the common seal. The shape of the face is different. Bill doesn't think grey seals have quite such pretty faces. They鈥檝e got rather a straight forehead and then a slightly hooked nose. The nostrils are very obviously apart, so there鈥檚 a slightly sort of stern look to them. Whereas the common seal鈥檚 face is cuter - it鈥檚 got a little forehead, a slightly doggy shape to it, the nostrils sort of join, and there鈥檚 a bit more of a smile in the face. Common seals are also called harbour seals, since they do like it calm - hence people often see them swimming around in the harbour. Whereas grey seals like it so rough that they actually have their pups when the weather is awful, late October and November, and they鈥檙e usually out on isolated rocks in the really, really rough seas. Whereas the common seals have their pups, as we can see, right now in July. These babies actually may be only about a week old, and they鈥檙e already quite big and they will grow quickly because that food is so rich. And here鈥檚 something to be proud of. Roughly half of the world populations both of grey seals and common seals are round the British coasts.