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Gray seal gives birth at Brookfield Zoo

Brookfield Zoo has seen its first birth of the new year.

Lily, an 11-year-old gray seal, gave birth to a female pup on Saturday, the Chicago Zoological Society announced Tuesday. The two will remain behind the scenes for several weeks to bond.

According to a news release, gray seal pups are born with long, white fur called lanugo, which is molted in two to four weeks and replaced with shorter, stiffer hair similar to that of adults.

At birth, the pup weighed just over 30 pounds, and the zoo staff estimates that she will triple or quadruple her weight in the next month, the news release said. Gray seals nurse for only about three weeks, and then the pup will be introduced to a fish diet.

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