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The Saimaa ringed seal
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Important task
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The most important task of the volunteers is to look for lairs where seal pups have been born that spring.
The volunteers usually explore their assigned areas on skis, regarded as the best way of making nature observations. Snowmobiles, hovercraft and hydrocopters are also used to some extent. The volunteers move around the islands in the lake in spring when the seal pups have already grown big enough to leave their lairs. In this way the volunteers can be sure not to disturb the lairs and the mothers feeding their young.
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"The most important task of the volunteers is to look for lairs where seal pups have been born that spring. The surest sign that a pup has been born in a particular lair is the pup's grey fur, or natal hair. There is usually a lot of it in a lair where a pup has been born, because the pup sheds it and then grows a new dark coat while still in the lair," Koskela explains.
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