TORONTO — Seals, you either love ‘em or hate ‘em.

By now, you’ve surely heard of the temperamental seal that slapped an unsuspecting kayaker in the face with an octopus. If you haven’t, you missed out on what’s perhaps the greatest wildlife video of the year, if not of all time!

Kayaker Taiyo Masuda captured the incredible moment the seal slapped his friend, Kyle Mulinder, while on a kayaking trip to Kaikoura. It’s believed the seal was hunting the octopus and got rather annoyed by the arrival of Mulinder and his friends.

What happened next was watched – and laughed at – by millions of people around the world, and may have given the seal community a bit of a bad rap.

But giving them a dose of positive PR is a wild grey seal in the Farnes Islands who has taken a liking to British doctor and experienced diver Ben Burville. The seal, who Burville refers to as his “dive buddy”, has been caught on video giving out loving hugs, holding hands and even taking naps with the doctor.

That’s right, seals are capable of bear hugs!

According to Burville, seeing the same seal more than once is highly unusual since there are over 5,000 seals at the Farne Islands. But it was love at first sight for this particular seal, which first swam with Burville for over an hour during one of his dives, then ambushed him with hugs on a separate dive two weeks later.

Whether they’re slapping humans or hugging them, you can’t argue that this has been an exciting month for seals. Keep it up, we can’t wait to see what you’ll do next!