In my next life, please don't bring me back as a fur seal
I've just got back from a two-week trip around Namibia (and briefly, Zambia) seeing the sights and relaxing with my boyfriend. One of our last stops was to be the Cape Cross Seal Colony , which harbours thousands of Cape seals who raise their pups along the coastline. Although I had been forewarned about the smell of these marine mammals, I had not quite prepared myself for the sickening stench emanating from the entire area. As soon as we got out of the car, I nearly gagged; this was a pungent, decomposing, musky smell that I have never before encountered. A huge bull protects his harem Even still, I was excited to be there, especially as it was pup season. As we got closer however, I begun to realise that part of the smell was in fact coming from the pups, or at least, the hundreds of dead ones scattered across the beach. Presumably, they were stillborn, crushed by the thousands of other seals all fighting for a prime space, or their mother had not c...