Lucy Cooke explains the strong bond between mother and pup
GREY SEAL
Dawn on the Isle of May and I felt like I was in a zombie movie. The biting wind was haunted by a cacophony of wails, gurgles and snorts. All around, hulking monsters were hurling fishy phlegm in my direction.
The beasts were grey seal mums protecting their snow-white pups. Every November the Isle of May is transformed for three bellicose weeks into a maternity ward for around 4,000 grey seals (Halichoerus grypus). It’s a riot of aggressive maternal love.
Grey seals spend most of the year as solitary aquatic hunters, but once a year these antisocial beasts haul themselves out of the water to give birth and nurse a single pup in the company of strangers. This scrap of storm-battered rock is the largest east coast breeding colony of grey seals in Scotland. The Sea Mammal Research Unit has been chronicling the rowdy spectacle for decades, as it offers a unique opportunity to study maternal behaviour in a large mammal at remarkably close quarters.
The onset of motherhood is facilitated by a symphony of hormones, but there’s one that stands out as a powerful driver of the maternal experience: oxytocin. The famous feel-good neuropeptide has gained a reputation as the ‘cuddle hormone’ for its influence over social bonding. But oxytocin is also involved in the physiological process of becoming a mother. It stimulates the uterus to pump out babies – hence its name from the Greek meaning ‘swift birth’ – as well as the nipples to eject milk. It is also implicated in stimulating maternal aggression. So, it is much more than just an elixir of contentment.
A strong maternal bond is essential as seal pups are totally de
