NATIONAL SEAL SANCTUARY

Another rescue by the Sanctuary came on Wednesday 20th January 2010 after a call from a staff member at the Tate St. Ives how had come across a seal on Porthmeor Beach. Having volunteers in that area they were quickly despatched to the beach to find the seal.

The seal was found and a call to the Sanctuary and the team. The seal was malnourished and dehydrated and on advice the seal was uplifted and brought to the Sanctuary. On arrival the pup was weighed and found to be 14 kilos and around 6 weeks old apart from the obvious signs a more in-depth clinical assessment revealed that it had puncture wounds to the underside of its belly that were swollen and infected, plus its breathing was a little ruckly with a snotty nose. Its wounds were cleaned and treated and a course of antibiotics started to help fight the infection, a course of pain relief as the wound area was quite tender, tube fed with fluids to help with re-hydration as well as a course of iron tablets and multi vitamins. This pup is a little girl and has been named Lavender.

Update: Lavender is very quiet in the hospital, to help with her low weight, we have put a heat lamp in her pen to keep her warm.

With five pups ready to go it was time to start our releases, where we headed down to Hayle beach on 22nd January 2010. We had three RSPCA pup, Mezerow, Deadly Nightshade, and Woundwort together with Scabbers and Skeeter. As predicted our pups were off into the open sea, where as the RSPCA pups dithered a little on the beach before heading into the water. We were joined on this release by a film crew who are making a programme for ‘Sky’ which is to be aired in May, keep checking the updates for a confirmed date.

Photo above: A very sleepy seal, who enjoys her fish!

You may think this piece of news does not deserve its own headline as lots of pups learn to eat fish.

If anybody has been following Hermione story since her rescue back at the end of September 2009, she is not an ordinary pup and has refused to put on weight and eat fish for herself.

Having twice been back to the hospital since her move to the nursery pools, last week she was taken back to the hospital again, but for Hermione three times a charm and is now eating fish all by herself, which caused great excitement with all the staff at the Sanctuary, but she still needs to increase her weight, which should happen over the next few weeks.

Keep checking the web site for regular news on this difficult seal.

Fatima and Sheba are both off their fish at the moment but it is that time of year again when all our resident grey seals start moulting. Both are spending lots of time together and keeping each other company.

Anneka is also moulting but still finds enough energy when the pool is empty to roll up and down the bottom of the pool during cleaning. Lizzie is quiet feeding well but spending time annoying Snoopy.

Snoopy is nearly at the end of moult and looking very pretty. We have also been looking into Snoopy’s records and we found that she used to do targeting training at Whipsnade, and we thought we would introduce this again. We got Snoopy to target the stick and as normal we blow a whistle to let her know she did it right, unfortunately when the whistle blew, she tuned and bolted, we think she was a little scared, but other time Snoopy has improved and we can now touch her head and her flippers, so well done Snoopy.

Atlanta has been making friends with a little wagtail bird, think she may be missing some interaction with the pups.

Ray has been doing some crazy swimming in the convalescent pool by sitting in the middle and doing get big splashes and doing lots of spinning and rolling really fast before darting to the end of the pool jumping out having a look around and then diving back into the pool.

Marlin has been a naughty boy and has been moved to the naughty pool to think about what he has done. Marlin has been picking on the females so to give them a break, he is in the nursery pool. By being on his own it has allowed the Animal Care Team to do some target training which he has not done since he was a pup, but has a very good memory, and remembers everything he was taught in his early years.

Treat time: As we had some conger eel we decided to treat these guys, here is how it played out.

Conger eel thrown into the pool, the pups, Ray, Lizzie, Sheba and Atlanta went after it. The pups did not know what it was and swam off, being followed by Ray, who did not come back as he could not remember what he was doing, Lizzie could find it and so it was up to Sheba and Atlanta who had a tug-of-war ending up with Atlanta with the head and Sheba with the tail.

Photo above: Residents in the Convalescent Pool

With Luna and Sahara off their fish at the moment the question we ask is ‘Who ate all the pies (fish)’ the answer Sija who is extremely chunky and has had her fish reduced.

They still have pups sharing their pool and they are Dumbledore, Sirius, Rowena, Malfoy, Beedle and Hooch all are doing well and continuing to put on weight.

Sahara is slowly getting used to the pups, but one day last week Sahara was sitting on the haul out and a pup tried to get past, so Sahara lifted his rear flippers to let the pup go by, the pup decided that the most comfortable spot would be behind Sahara and sat there. Sahara went to put his flippers down and was surprised to find a pup and so they went back up in the air again, poor Sahara spent most of the day looking like a banana until the pup moved at feeding time.

Breeding season is still apparent in this pool, with Flipper and Yulelog still arguing, but they do seem to have a truths every Friday, which has now been re-named ’Friendly Friday’ Both are moulting and Flipper has taken to hanging out in the cave with Yulelog blocking the entrance, which is of no concern to Flipper as he is very happy in the cave.

The Sea Lions have been on and off their fish this week, and they have also had their pool cleaned and re-filled. André is the noisiest at the moment and spends all his day barking and annoying Noito, but running around and winding him up. Diego just looks on and refuses to get involved.

The only time these three work together is when they are annoying the Animal Care Team and all three have found the prefect prank. As you know we have three wooden pallets on the haul out area, so when we come into the pool we get them to station on them.

All three now like to push the pallets into the water and jump on them, but it does make it difficult to get them back on to dry land again.

The ponies after breaking out of the field on a daily basis have now been moved in with the sheep, our choice not the ponies who are a little unhappy with their new field-mates.

The goats have been out and about for a walk (with the animal care team) to meet all the pups in the pools.

Reef is looking very fluffy at the moment and is continuing to patrol the Sanctuary.

With the Animal Care Team continuing with training Chaff and Andy to come in and out the caves at feeding time, they have started to use them to sleep in. In the morning the Fur Seals are no where to be found and then suddenly they will poke their heads out the cave with a look on their face as if to say ’who has woken us up at this hour’ normal this is around mid-morning... Lazy fur seals.

Starsky and Hutch have been here now just over a year and to celebrate this, even if it was a few days late, the Animal Care Team made them a coconut treat. The coconut was filled with grapes and monkey nuts and yummy prawns. Starsky and Hutch being Starsky and Hutch sat by the coconut throwing all the grapes and money nuts out and just going after the prawns.

In the pup pool we have Hufflepuff, Rebeus, Stinkweed, Dobby, Buckbeak, Luna, Dolores, Ginny, Pigwigeon, and Molly, all are doing well and continuing to put on weight and we hope in a few weeks some will be ready for release back into the wild.

Nursery 1 - Angelina and Ronny are both doing well.

Nursery 2 - Lilly, Pomona and SMRU are all feeding well and getting on great together.

Convalescent Pool - Triffid (36 kg) Snowdrop (28 kg), Scarlett (31 kg), Winky (26 kg), Peeves (23.5 kg), Snape (23 kg) and Fawkes (21 kg) are all putting on weight and enjoying being in the big pool with more room to swim.
Mrs Norris is now a little boy and has been called Mr Norris and Tonks has moved into the main hospital pen 3.

		National Seal Sanctuary
		Issue 36
		24th January 2010