lovely little seals!

At the Zoo I absolutely fell in love with the grey seal, currently living by itself in the Sea Lion House.  Watching the enrichment with the seal and the zookeeper was one of the first times in quite a while I’ve really enjoyed seeing something at a zoo.  So, naturally I figured I’d try to learn some more about grey seals,  because I don’t really know much beyond what they told us at the zoo, and that they’re pretty cute!  The grey seal is scientifically known as Halichoerus grypus.  They live on both sides of the north Atlantic ocean, and have three separate populations. I’m not sure which population the grey sea at the zoo belongs to.  
Grey seals are on the “of least concern” end of the endangerment scale.  There are around 150,000 in the wild.   Female seals grow to be about 7 feet long and 400 pounds while male seals grow a foot longer and weigh twice as much.  
Grey seals are excellent swimmers and divers, and they can go to 150 feet or more depth rather quickly.  Seals exhale before they dive and their lungs collapse as they go down to depth with no ill effects.  They don’t have the issue of getting the bends (gasses in the blood bubbling if a [human] diver comes up to quickly from too deep a depth)  the way humans do, and they can swim for very long distances without having to get out of the water.  

sources: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Gray_Seal#p00cq3k2
http://www.pinnipeds.org/seal-information/species-information-pages/the-phocid-seals/grey-seal
http://www.cresli.org/cresli/seals/greyseal.html