A young seal crawled for miles over Ameland searching for his mother. On Wednesday night a couple who were on their way home saw something lying on the road. At first they thought it was a run over cat, but on closer inspection it appeared to be a small seal. The animal had made its way from the mudflats, had crept over the dike, had crossed pastures and was heading for the skating rink in the village of Ballum. The animal was taken to the Nobel Hotel in Ballum in the boot of the car and from there it was transported to the SRRC by seal first-aider Dirk Visser.
The baby was exhausted and weighed only 15 kilos; normally such an animal should weigh between 30 and 40 kilos. For this reason the animal will remain at the SRRC until it has regained sufficient strength to be released. Meanwhile, the animal has been adopted and named Little Richard.
It does not happen often that a seal travels such a long distance over land. Seals are used to climbing over rocks, so a dike was no problem for the animal.
The last couple of weeks a total of 26 young seals have been brought in who have lost their mothers. Luckily, because of the mild weather up until now this is less than in preceding years. However, on Saturday, January 5th, a number of young grey and sick common seals were found: two on Vlieland, one on Terschelling and one on Ameland.
01-05-2008 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
