Lucky to witness a moment of the instinctual goodness of maternal contact. A mother harbor seal exchanging a kiss with its newborn pup after returning to shore. While the rest of the seals lay in the sun moulting, this mother/pup pair experimented with swimming and rolling in the water of Elkhorn Slough.

As you'd expect, they stayed in constant close contact, with the greatest allowable distance between them about 3-4 feet. And every time they snuggled to touch, they appeared to get pleasure or at least a release of tension from having any distance between them at all.

March 25, 2017
Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, Moss Landing, CA