Hundreds of seal pups have died at a nature reserve during Storm Arwen.
A spokesperson for St Abb’s Head in the Scottish Borders said they had “never seen” damage of such scale before.
They said in a small area of bay at Pettico Wick there were 224 dead pups in the water, with more washing ashore.
A further survey will be carried out this week on other colonies in the area, but the spokesperson said “it doesn’t look good”.
The nature reserve is run by the National Trust for Scotland.
In 2007 there was no colony at all, but last year it saw a record number of 1806 pups recorded.
In a post on Facebook, the spokesperson for St Abb’s Head said: “Having worked on seal colonies for ten years I’ve never seen a storm cause damage on anything like this scale before.
“Unfortunately it appears we have lost the majority of our seal pups to this storm.
“This is a risk grey seals take with their breeding strategy, pupping at this time of year when storms are most frequent.
“But for this kind of phenomenal storm to hit at the peak of pupping is exceptional.”
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