A SECOND grey seal pup has been born at at a South Cumbria nature reserve, equalling last year’s record of two pups being born on the island.

Seals at South Walney Nature Reserve use its protected beaches to haul out and rest for decades.

Last year was the first time that a seal pup had been recorded on the island and staff are delighted that another seal has been added to the roster.

READ MORE: Seal pup born at South Walney reserve for the second year

Seal cam goes live at Walney reserve

Sarah Dalrymple, who works at South Walney Nature Reserve, discovered the seal pup on Thursday morning.

She said: "This is a wonderfully encouraging sight, showing that seals are thriving on Walney Island and establishing us as north west England’s only grey seal breeding colony.

"The arrival of this second pup is great timing, just before our first ever Walney Wader Festival at the nature reserve this weekend.

"We’re expecting a lot of visitors and they will be able to watch the new seal pup on our recently-installed sealcam, which will stream live footage of the seal colony throughout the day.

"Even though the festival is all about waders, we’re celebrating the seals too with a seal workshop on the Saturday.”

Due to the young age of the seal, it is incredibly vulnerable to disturbance, which would cause the mother to abandon it and the pup to starve.

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For this reason, there is strictly no access to the area of the nature reserve where the seal pup is so it is not possible to view the pup at South Walney Nature Reserve.

However, you can watch the seals playing and fishing in the water at high tide, along with thousands of wintering wildfowl and wader birds, from hides elsewhere on the nature reserve and on the Trust’s new sealcam.

The Walney Wader Festival takes place on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 November, 11am to 4pm, with free events on both days for all the family.

You can view the sealcam by clicking here.