Grey Seals Born At Brookfield Zoo

BROOKFIELD, IL — Brookfield Zoo visitors will be seeing double with its recent additions, according to a zoo news release. Two grey seals were born on Jan. 9 and 10. The female pups are now behind the scenes with their mothers, Lily and Tasha, and are practicing their swimming skills in a pool specially designed for the newborns, the zoo said. This modified pool is shallow, which allows the pups to practice navigating in their aquatic environment with easy access out. The pups will make their public debut sometime in early spring.

In anticipation of both births, the Chicago Zoological Society’s marine mammal care staff had been monitoring Lily and Tasha around the clock and were present when both pups were born, the news release said. Society staff continued these observations for about a week and a half following the pups’ births to ensure the young animals were progressing well.

This is the fourth successful birth for Lily, who turns 16 on Jan. 25. Her previous offspring — all males born in 2014, 2016 and 2017 — are currently on breeding loans at other accredited North American zoos. The other pup is the first successful birth for 16-year-old Tasha. The two moms are half-sisters and arrived at Brookfield Zoo in November 2007. The sire of both newborns is 19-year-old Kiinaq (pronounced KEY-knack), who arrived at Brookfield Zoo in 2018. Kiinaq was stranded in the wild and deemed unreleasable when he was only a few months old.

The recent arrival of Kiinaq to Brookfield Zoo was based on a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Grey Seal Species Survival Plan. Such a plan is a cooperative population management and conservation program for select species in accredited North American zoos and aquariums.

“These are the first female grey seals to be born at Brookfield Zoo and are very significant because they will help us maintain a healthy and genetically diverse self-sustaining population for the species in professional care,” Rita Stacey, curator of marine mammals for the society, said in the news release. In this role, she documents the pedigree and the entire demographic history of each individual in the grey seal population.

At birth, grey seal pups are born with long, white fur called lanugo, which is molted in two to four weeks and replaced with shorter, stiffer hair similar to that of adults, the release said.