animals
Shedding time – gray seals on the Heligoland dunes
Different coloring and different luster can be used to tell the new coat from the old when the coat is changing. Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
With binoculars and cameras, visitors to the Heligoland dunes are currently observing an impressive natural spectacle: hundreds of gray seals are there to change their fur. To do this, the animals have to save energy.
Spring is a very special time on the Heligoland dunes: hundreds of gray seals come to change their fur. The animals are currently lying close together on the beach in a long row – as close as possible to the water so that the escape route is short.
Visitors can only observe such a large number in very specific months: “Twice a year, the animals have the biological need to lie on land – during the birthing season and during the change of fur,” says Ute Pausch, ranger in the municipality of Heligoland.
Best conditions
Germany’s only offshore island offers the animals the best conditions with its 0.7 square kilometer small, offshore dune. Numerous visitors come every year to follow the natural spectacle. They must keep a minimum distance of 30 meters.
The seals in this part of the North Sea change their fur from the end of February until April. The process takes about two weeks for each animal. “The metabolism then runs at full speed, which is an energetically very complex process,” reports Pausch. The animals then looked for places where they could lie around lazily.
On this sunny afternoon there are 800 animals alone on the northern beach of the dune. A bull weighing around 300 kilograms raises its head, the ranger observes it through binoculars. The 60-year-old explains that he has only just started to change his coat. “Around the eyes and on the forehead you can already see a little lighter fur, shinier.” The rest is yellowish-light brownish. “It’s the old skin – worn and dull.” The coat is very stressed by life in salt water and on land.
Again and again a loud howl can be heard. “These are more the female animals,” says the ranger. The tide is rising, the first seals are slowly getting wet. But they are just individual animals. “They’re not all nice to each other.” Those who are higher up don’t want to make room. So the howling has the motto: “Stay away, you just touched me.”
Highest levels in gray seal births
According to the German Wildlife Foundation, gray seals were hunted by humans until the mid-20th century. According to the Schleswig-Holstein Nature Conservation Union (Nabu), the largest predators in Germany had disappeared from the German coasts for a long time. Since the 1980s, colonies have emerged again off Amrum, Juist, Norderney, Borkum and on the Heligoland dunes.
In the north, peaks in gray seal births were reported in the 2021/22 whelping season. According to the Jordsand association on Heligoland, there were 670 births alone. “Within Germany, Helgoland is the place where most gray seal babies are born,” says ranger Pausch. In the months of the throwing season, the seals are scattered all over the beach. Then the requirement applies to the dune: “During the throwing time, people are limited to the winter adventure path.”
The birthing season on Helgoland runs from November to January. According to the information, the young animals from this winter have already exchanged their snow-white children’s fur (lanugo) for the adult fur at the age of two to four weeks, so they are long gone. She will not change her coat again until spring next year.