ARIEL - RESCUED 26/06/01
Ariel, a rescued pupAriel was reported by a man at Grass Point, who saw her trying to get out of the water, by climbing a sea wall. As there had been no other seals in the vicinity for some time and Ariel was looking distressed and appeared exhausted it was decided that she needed to be rescued.
Ariel was then brought over to Oban on the Mull ferry and collected by sanctuary staff.
Ariel was malnourished, dehydrated and slightly anaemic and also very underweight for age.
She will be given fluids for the first 24 hours to rehydrate her then she will be fed on a special multimilk formula (substitute for mothers milk) until she is 2 weeks of age. At two weeks old she will then be slowly weaned onto fish and once stronger will be moved into our weaning pool where she will learn to feed for herself.
Ariel, a rescued pupUpdate - Ariel (arrival 26th June) is the slowcoach of the summer. She was moved into the weaning pool full time on the 19th July and remained there for almost three months. She seemed to be incapable of learning to feed by herself and needed to be hand fed, and sometimes force fed, for a large part of the summer. She and Scooby resided in the weaning pool together for what seemed like a lifetime.
When Scooby was eventually moved outside Ariel exercised her female quirkiness and started to feed capably. She went outside on the 8th of October where it has taken her a while to settle down. She stayed underwater hiding from the staff and visitors, only surfacing to breathe, for the first week. She is still nervous of the adults and is slow to feed but is gaining weight gradually and we will release her as soon as she hits the magic 35kilos.

UPDATE 2-3-2002
Ariel took a long time to settle into the outdoor pools and was very cautious and timid around the adult seals. She took a long time to reach the "magic" 30 kg, so we decided to keep her an extra couple of weeks to see if she would become more confident. The extra time did the trick, and by the time of her release (weighing 34 kg) she was happily racing for each fish with Scooby and the adult seals.
At her release she was quite timid and spent 10 minutes sitting in the shallows watching Scooby playing in the seaweed. Although quite unsure about the big wide world, curiosity eventually got the better of her and she went to rummage and explore in the seaweed. Surprisingly her and Scooby bumped into each other while venturing into their new home, and they were last seen playing together in the water.
CUAN - RESCUED 16/06/01
Cuan was first reported by a local family from the island of Luing who spotted the pup hauled out by the Cuan ferry slipway. The pup had either been separated or abandoned by its mother and was therefore left until late afternoon to give it a chance to be reunited. As the mother did not appear the Ferry master brought the pup across to the mainland where it was collected by the sanctuary staff. Cuan, a rescued pup
Cuan, in our resident poolWe knew Cuan was only two days old because he still had his umbilicus attached which normally drops off after 5 days. Cuan was underweight, malnourished, dehydrated and slightly anaemic. He was given 24 hours of fluids with a course of antibiotics and vitamins and then fed on a special milk formula until he was 2 weeks old.
Update - By July Cuan (arrival 16th June) was in the weaning pool where he very quickly got the hang of eating herring and was moved to the outdoor adult pools. He settled in very well and became super confident in feeding, to the extent that he had no qualms at stealing fish from the mouths of Lorne, Blondie or Gigha, "Cocky wee pup". He reached 34.5kgs and was released on the 9th of October at three and a half months old.
SCOOBY - RESCUED 13/07/01
Scooby, a rescued pupScooby had been spotted suckling from his mother during the 1st week of his life, no problem there!.
Unfortunately a couple of days later his mother rejected him, and as he became hungry he was spotted trying to suckle from any seal he could find which included some grey seals that were close by. They took exception to Scooby doing this and as a result he has a couple of puncture wounds in his mouth. During this second week he became very weak and underweight because he did not have a mother to feed him, so a phone call was made and he was brought over to the mainland and then collected by the sanctuary staff at a half way point.
Despite being underweight Scooby is a bright, very alert, and aggressive pup so he has an excellent chance of pulling through to eventually being released. He was given fluids for 24hrs then onto a special milk formula for 2 days. As he is roughly 2 weeks old this is the time he would naturally be weaned off milk onto fish. Once he has reached 15Kg and can feed for himself he will be moved to our weaning pool where he´ll become much more independent.
Scooby, in our weaning poolUpdate - Scooby was in the weaning pool full time within a month of his arrival at the centre but wasn´t quite so forward when it came to feeding himself. He very quickly learned to swallow herring that were force fed to him but he wouldn´t pick fish up underwater for himself. In the end he was starved to make him hungry enough to eat without assistance. This may sound horrible, but the pups weight is monitored very closely and it is often necessary to cease feeding for a few days to encourage feeding.
Scooby eventually got the hang of eating halves of herring and reached a weight of 22kgs. He was moved to the outside adult pools on the 1st October. Since then there has been no stopping him, he has gained confidence around the adult seals and is getting very close to the target release weight of 35kgs.

UPDATE 2-3-2002
Scooby soon found his feet when he was moved into the outdoor pools with our resident adult seals. He was ravenous at every feed and would welcome you by dashing around the pool, porpoising in and out of the water and crying loudly. At many of the feeds he ended up with more fish than the adult seals, and as his body grew, so did his confidence. In the weeks before his release he would try to grab fish before the adults and would often race off with a fish in his mouth, with Lorne in hot pursuit.
We released him and Ariel together on the 29th of November, by this point Scooby was 5 months old and weighed 37 kg - a big boy! His bold character shone through at his release, immediately he shot into the water to explore the seaweed and his new surroundings, and he never looked back.
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