Actually my wife Janet thinks they could be feeding him to make him tame. She says she sees that there is a taped-off region of the beach to keep people a little bit away from him so he is not disturbed.
The local seals love it if you sing to them, it attracts them. They come nearer and keep popping their heads up out of compelling curiosity- what on earth are those land people doing? Of course they like rocks that have become hot, or anywhere that is fairly dry and then they just soak up the warmth. There are two beaches where we see them at times, the beautiful sandy Aiseag Maol-Ruibhe beach at Breacais looking across to the Applecross peninsula hills on the mainland, that beach is between Broadford and the Skye Bridge. And the other one is the stunning so-called Coral Beaches at An Claigeann, north of Dùn Bheagan castle, made of crunchy white calcified something or other, not coral I believe, not sand, like petrified rice krispies. Skye has four (at least) really great beaches but Harris and North Uist are in a different league, beyond wonderful, as regards spectacular vast beaches, there are no words really. I have not seen seals up close when I have been on the beaches of the Western Isles, for some reason.
I had something in the back of my mind and now I remember, “An Claigeann” means “the skull”, as in the childrens’ rhyme “Buailidh mi ’sa chlaigeann thu. Chaorainn, a chaorainn, cnagaidh mi ’sa cheann thu!” - I will hit you on the skull, O rowan O rowan, I will whack you on the head.