NATURE

A seal pup's life story of adventure and danger unfolds on NATURE's GOLDEN SEALS OF THE SKELETON COAST.

The saga of one South African fur seal's adventures and adversities as he matures into a massive bull is captured on GOLDEN SEALS OF THE SKELETON COAST. The saga starts with the male pup's birth along the barren, windswept Skeleton Coast in West Africa. By the time he takes his first breaths, he's already facing danger -- in the form of jackals invading the seal colony.

Only with his mother's protection does he escape predators and many other threats to his survival, including violent seas and huge males -- "beach masters" weighing 700 pounds -- that can trample anything in their path.

His mother watches over him diligently for his first 10 months of life, leaving his side only to hunt for food in the sea. But as the time approaches for the pup to make it out on his own, he faces his biggest trial yet -- human hunters seeking the fur of young seals. In the ensuing chaos, the pup manages to escape, but he and his mother are separated, never to meet again.

Now, however, he's old enough to fend for himself. In this new phase of his life, he embarks on a 3,000-mile journey that will take him south along the African coast and around the Cape of Good Hope to the southeastern coast -- and eventually all the way back to the place of his birth.

Once back on home turf as a big bull, he will vie with other males for "beach master status" and the right to mate and father pups of his own.


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