On mother’s day the phone rang very early at the SRRC: tourists had found a baby seal on Ameland. The young animal was found on the beach motherless.
Sunday the 10th of May, early in the morning, a young seal was found on the beach on Ameland. Thanks to the help of Peter Visser (one of our volunteers on Ameland), the ferry service and our own ambulance service, the young vulnerable animal could be transported quickly to the SRRC.
There, we saw that we were dealing with a prematurely born, white seal with almost all of its embryonic fur still remaining. Full-term seal pups lose the fur during birth. Possibly, the white fur brought the animal in danger: a common seal baby must be able to swim within a couple hours of birth, because the sandbank will flood. However, with such thick and heavy fur, it is extremely difficult for the animal to swim. Possibly, this caused it to lose its mother.
The animal is a day-old male: he still has a fresh umbilical cord, which usually doesn’t drop off until the third or fourth day. The little adventurer weighs a mere 8,3 kilos. The young seal is in quarantine and is exhausted. Of course we will do everything to give him a good chance of survival.
05-10-2009 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
