First Seal Pup Release of the Season


The Cornish Seal Sanctuary had their first official release of the season with five pups being released back into the wild.

Grey seal pups Seal, Orca, Manatee, Loris and Common seal pup Icy, were all released at Gwithian Beach this afternoon. The planned release is a major operation involving several members of the Sanctuary team.

The rehabilitation pool was drained, and then each pup was herded into a cage and then transferred to a trailer which was then driven onto the beach to be safely released.
Seal Release - 25th November 2016
Seal Release - 25th November 2016 Usually as soon as a pup has reached 40kg and has received a clean bill of health they are then released back into the wild.

There are a variety of reasons as to why grey seal pups need to be rescued, from malnutrition to being separated from their mum at just a few days old. Seal, was the first rescue of the season and came to the Sanctuary at just 5 days old.
Seal was found and rescued by the animal care team from Portreath beach, weighing just 15kg and still had his full white coat. He had not yet been weaned, and had various abrasions all over his body.

Icy was a rather unusual rescue for the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, as the Sanctuary primarily rescue grey seal pups as they are most predominantly found around the Cornish coastline. However the Sanctuary has rescued 2 common seal pups already this year.
Seal Release - 25th November 2016
Seal Release - 25th November 2016 Icy is a female Common Seal pup and was rescued in September from Porthmellon, Mevagissey. She was a very malnourished pup at 12 weeks old, weighing 11kg. As well as being underweight, the team found she also had an umbilicus infection and some superficial wounds around her body.

Tamara, the Curator at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary said "We are all so pleased to have been able to release the pups today; the first release is always particularly special"
"We´ll miss them because we´ve got to know them all so well," she added, "but at the same time it will be great to see them back in the wild where they belong."

The sanctuary plan to continue releasing Pups as soon as they are a healthy weight and well enough to return back to the wild.
Seal Release - 25th November 2016

Press Release issued by the Cornish Seal Sanctuary
For more details, please contact Georgina Shannon on 01326 221361
Issue Date: 25th November 2016


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