It's the season for seal pups, and they might show up in weird places

With a milder winter than usual, seals may start showing up in unexpected areas inland, biologists warn. 

From now until spring, it's pupping season for four species of seals in New Brunswick: grey, harp, harbour and hooded. 

And because the marine mammals must come ashore to have their pups, they do occasionally show up a bit farther away from the ocean than usual. 

"They do tend to wander a bit," Tonya Wimmer, the executive director of the Marine Animal Rescue Society, also known as MARS, said Wednesday.

"We will get animals sometimes even quite a way inland, where they've gone up rivers and end up on someone's front lawn, for example, to rest or to give birth." 

Seal pups aren't born able to swim. Depending on the species they need to grow on ice or land a while before they're able to survive in the ocean.

That can vary depending on the species. Hooded seal pups need about four days of nursing out of the water before they can swim alongside their mothers. Harbour seals need a couple of weeks, according to Wimmer. 

And in winters when there is less ice in the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, seals need to come ashore. 

"If the ice isn't there, we do see those animals having these pups on the beaches and shores," said Wimmer. "In those years where the ice isn't really particularly great, especially in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we will see those animals throughout our beaches." 

It's important not to disturb seals during pupping season, according to Wimmer, even if you suspect an animal is lost or abandoned.

Some species of seal will leave their offspring during low tide while they forage for food, so pups aren't abandoned. They're awaiting their mother's return.

And trying to herd seals into the ocean when they may not be able to swim yet isn't just cruel, it's illegal. 

"Under the Fisheries Act, you can't harm, harass or disturb marine mammals," said Wimmer. 

Pupping season tends to bring a lot more seals into areas populated by people, Saint John researchers say.