These behaviors are extremely important during the first few moments of life. If the mother doesn’t smell and recognize her offspring, she will refuse to feed it. As a result these pups will starve to death. Sometimes the males are too aggressive in the area and they will trample the offspring if the females can’t protect them. Some of the pups have been able to nurse from other females when they are abandoned by their own mother’s. This generally will only occur when a female has lost her own pup.
The pups are fed milk from the mother’s body for the first month of life. They can gain more weight during this period of time. It is exhausting for the mother to feed like this. In fact, she can lose body mass during that feeding process. The milk is very rich in fat so that the pups develop the layers of blubber they need to stay warm enough. The mother doesn’t leave the pup during the first month of life to get food herself. When she does have to go, she won’t return to the pup for further feedings.
What researchers have found is that the pup is able to survive on what it has been fed for about two full weeks. At that point the urge to eat occurs and they will move to the water where it will feed itself. Not all species of seal mother’s fast though so they take their pups with them into the water while they feed.
The live span for a seal depends on the species of it and the natural environment it is in. Some of them have been known to live up to 40 years.