Box Brownie
Suspended / Banned
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Firstly forgive me if in adding to this 'debate' I have missed/misread/misunderstood anyones contribution.
I was there with a group on both Saturday & Sunday and suffice to say my approach has been what is always is with wildlife ~ I approach & treat with respect! Our guide was of course the additional source for information about the seals behaviour etc.
I read before we went up about the technique that some togs use i.e. taking a long time to crawl in to avoid disturbance. Well, as I understand it the UK seals have no natural predators therefore only man can be seen as a threat.
So, in the scheme of things & the way an animal habitiated to the presence of man would behave if approached by the most stealthy means I would ask this question ~ such stealth is more properly called stalking and with such an approach & bearing in mind the wind for almost all of the images I took and have seen we were all upwind so our scent was was being carried across the colony for all to smell us. Once an animal detects a possible threat its stress level will logically rise i.e. if it can smell you but cannot see the threat!
Right, my joints are not what they once were so crawling held little attraction I therefore moved (mostly) with deliberate slowness so that I could be seen from a distance and once at what I believe to be the edge of the various individuals comfort zones and settled down kneeling for a period to obsrve the behaviour and take my pictures. My distances varied but possibly wrongly I took as a guide the location of the surrounding togs.
Better to crawl in from some distance or walk obviously but slowly most of the way??? ~ surely a moot point depending on I think the specific wildlife subject and the prevailing 'conditions'. I cannot immediately recall causing a seal to move because of my presence but did observe such "lifting" by various togs of whom some seem to cause entrapping i.e. they because of their angle of approach to the seals and the togs already there gave the seals no way to 'get out'.
I saw and took a few images of pups suckling with no sign of my or other togs near me were causing the feeding time to be shortened or the 'pair' to be separated.
Now as for the size of tog parties being "allowed" our at any one time that possibly is a subject for another day but the images posted above do not account for tele compression etc.
Lastly, most of those folk taking the trek out to the sandbank will be more motivated to think of the animals welfare but I noted that the seals approached and gave birth right to the "fence line" and from the sandbank walkback I saw large crowds gathered with the flashes of P&S cameras blasting away. Was that respectfull of the seals bearing in mind "they" actively make for the area and stay there close to 'man'.
Ooops more lastly! "we" impact on wildlife in all manner of ways including the seals. I spoke to one man who had been going there since 1957 and he remarked that seal numbers had increased latterly due the reduction in pollution by pressure of both Greenpeace & The Humber Action Group. Access to such natural (?) places should never become the preserve of those who claim to have the only voice that should be heard.
Just 2p's worth of this view of the world.
I was there with a group on both Saturday & Sunday and suffice to say my approach has been what is always is with wildlife ~ I approach & treat with respect! Our guide was of course the additional source for information about the seals behaviour etc.
I read before we went up about the technique that some togs use i.e. taking a long time to crawl in to avoid disturbance. Well, as I understand it the UK seals have no natural predators therefore only man can be seen as a threat.
So, in the scheme of things & the way an animal habitiated to the presence of man would behave if approached by the most stealthy means I would ask this question ~ such stealth is more properly called stalking and with such an approach & bearing in mind the wind for almost all of the images I took and have seen we were all upwind so our scent was was being carried across the colony for all to smell us. Once an animal detects a possible threat its stress level will logically rise i.e. if it can smell you but cannot see the threat!
Right, my joints are not what they once were so crawling held little attraction I therefore moved (mostly) with deliberate slowness so that I could be seen from a distance and once at what I believe to be the edge of the various individuals comfort zones and settled down kneeling for a period to obsrve the behaviour and take my pictures. My distances varied but possibly wrongly I took as a guide the location of the surrounding togs.
Better to crawl in from some distance or walk obviously but slowly most of the way??? ~ surely a moot point depending on I think the specific wildlife subject and the prevailing 'conditions'. I cannot immediately recall causing a seal to move because of my presence but did observe such "lifting" by various togs of whom some seem to cause entrapping i.e. they because of their angle of approach to the seals and the togs already there gave the seals no way to 'get out'.
I saw and took a few images of pups suckling with no sign of my or other togs near me were causing the feeding time to be shortened or the 'pair' to be separated.
Now as for the size of tog parties being "allowed" our at any one time that possibly is a subject for another day but the images posted above do not account for tele compression etc.
Lastly, most of those folk taking the trek out to the sandbank will be more motivated to think of the animals welfare but I noted that the seals approached and gave birth right to the "fence line" and from the sandbank walkback I saw large crowds gathered with the flashes of P&S cameras blasting away. Was that respectfull of the seals bearing in mind "they" actively make for the area and stay there close to 'man'.
Ooops more lastly! "we" impact on wildlife in all manner of ways including the seals. I spoke to one man who had been going there since 1957 and he remarked that seal numbers had increased latterly due the reduction in pollution by pressure of both Greenpeace & The Humber Action Group. Access to such natural (?) places should never become the preserve of those who claim to have the only voice that should be heard.
Just 2p's worth of this view of the world.
