BART - RESCUED 01/07/03
	Bart is the first of this seasons common seals to need our help. We received a call on Monday informing us that a small pup had been spotted at Loch Sween with no mother around to feed it. After watching the pup for 24 hours to make sure it´s mum wasn´t coming back it was brought into the sanctuary. Bart is in good shape, weighing a slightly skinny 8kg and measuring 90cm in length. His routine blood tests have shown that there are no hidden problems, so he should soon progress. After just 6 days at the sanctuary we will start to wean him onto fish to help him put weight on quickly.
UPDATE 30/08/03
Bart has put on a lot of weight since he first arrived and is looking far healthier. He is, however, fairly slow to progress through each stage in the hospital. Each pup takes it´s own time but since Bart is still being force fed at 9 weeks old he is slower than average. He will eventually manage to eat whole fish on his own but until then he is still our little baby. Bart has been taking regular dips in the weaning pool and is a very good swimmer. He soon learned to be very cheeky and hide under the haul-out site whenever someone came to take him out of the pool. He gets very grumpy when it´s time to go back in his pen.
UPDATE 02/11/03
Bart is a big soppy baby and spent a long time in the weaning pool. Instead of going for the fish he would haul-out and suckle on his own belly or flipper. He was the first pup to arrive this year and has slipped further and further behind his contemporaries. He has finally made it outside and is progressing well, however, he is far smaller than the other pups and will be released at a much later date. Bart really does love to be in the water and is always zooming round, he gets on very well with Rona and Homer and is always with them. In fact the three have become known as the terrible trio and cast cheeky glances at all our visitors. Bart is the cheekiest of all stealing fish from all the other seal, even Lorne!
UPDATE 10/12/03
Bart is very close to his release weight of 30kg. All the pups that we release must be quite plump to allow them plenty of food stores while they learn to feed on live fish. Bart is doing well outside and will soon be ready to return to the wild. He is enjoying the relatively empty pools as he gets far more to eat and a lot more attention from the animal care team.

Bart Released - UPDATE 31/01/04
Bart has been at the sanctuary for the longest time this season but has finally been released back into the wild. On Tuesday the 20th of January Bart was taken south of Oban for about 2 hours to an ideal site and then released back into the wild. Once his travelling cage was placed on the beach Bart became impatient to get free and forced the lid off the box. The smell of the sea really excites the pups after a long journey in the van.
After making his way down the shore, Bart took a look around and cruised out to deeper water. He did not seem especially keen to go and spent a long time playing in the water before swimming out of sight. On release he weighed a sturdy 37.5kg.

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