Look at That Face: Brookfield Zoo’s Baby Seal in the Running for Cutest Newcomer

Patty Wetli | February 23, 2024 1:22 pm

Brookfield Zoo’s grey seal pup is just one week old and already a charmer. (Courtesy Brookfield Zoo)

We’re just two months into 2024, and we already have a strong contender for most adorable newcomer of the year.

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Brookfield Zoo announced Friday the birth of a grey seal pup on Feb. 17, and he’s a cutie. Visitors will have to wait several weeks to meet the pup, though, while he bonds behind the scenes with his mom Georgette (aka “Georgie”), who arrived at the zoo in 2020.

The not-so-little guy already tips the scales at 50 pounds, having packed on 15 in just his first week since birth. While nursing for the next few weeks, he can easily gain about 100 pounds, developing a thick layer of blubber, zoo officials said.

The pup with mom Georgie, who’s fully blind in her left eye and functionally blind in her right. Staffers at Brookfield Zoo say she locates her little one by his smell and sounds. (Courtesy of Brookfield Zoo)

Once hunted to near extinction, grey seals have rebounded since the U.S. passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. (A controversial hunt still takes place in Canada.)

Both of the pup’s parents — 11-year-old Georgie and 23-year-old Kiinaq (pronounced KEY-knack) — were rescued from the wild after being stranded, which makes the pup’s birth significant in terms of increasing the genetic diversity of the grey seal population in accredited North American zoos and aquariums.

For those wondering why the “grey” seal pup is snowy white, his fur won’t stay like that for long.

Pups are born with the white fur — known as lanugo — which helps absorb sunlight and trap heat, and they shed it when they’re about three weeks old. In addition to providing warmth, lanugo also serves as camouflage for the vulnerable pups, which are frequently born on ice in the wild.

In the wild, baby grey seals grow up fast, weaned after several weeks and on their own for hunting food. (Courtesy of Brookfield Zoo)

The youngster will quickly lose his white fur, known as lanugo. Male grey seals, like this pup, have a distinctively arched nose, which has earned them the nickname horsehead seal. (Courtesy of Brookfield Zoo)

This pup’s a born swimmer. Seals may look clumsy on land, but in the water, they can reach speeds topping 20 miles per hour. (Courtesy of Brookfield Zoo)