First seal baby saved by SRRC
What name shall Edwin Evers give this seal baby?
Today, the SRRC has taken in its first seal baby of the year. It is a male seal, a couple of days old, weighing only 9 kilos. This baby has been found on the beach on Ameland. Due to circumstances, the baby seal has lost its mother and without help would slowly die of starvation. Thanks to the help of volunteers, the seal baby was directly taken to the SRRC, where he was given his first portion of food. Of course, everyone is very welcome to come and see the fluffy seal for themselves. Lenie ‘t Hart has promised the adoption-right of the first seal to radio 538 DJ Edwin Evers, as a gift, during his jubilee broadcast. He may name the seal and is invited for the seal’s release, which is expected to take place in a couple of months.
Lenie ’t Hart is concerned about the common seal population. “Of course we are doing everything we can to give this seal pup a good chance. Even so, I am very worried. This is the beginning of a new common seal birthing season and this species is doing worse and worse. Last winter, we had a record number of sick common seals at the SRRC. We are seeing massive mortality under especially the young animals, not only in the Netherlands, but throughout the Wadden Sea area. We are currently researching the causes for this.”
Lenie ’t Hart hopes that there are enough animal lovers willing to help the seals: “We cannot leave these seal babies to fend for themselves, can we? They are basically fit as a fiddle, but without their mothers they have no chance of survival. Often, mother and pup lose each other, because they panic when they are disrupted by humans. It takes twelve terrible agonizing days before a baby in this situation dies of starvation. Human beings, then, should take responsibility for that and help such animals in need!”
Luckily, these young seals have a good chance of survival: They are survivors who stayed fighting until they washed ashore somewhere along the coast and were found. Almost all of them will grow into strong healthy seals that are then released back into the Wadden Sea. In the next couple of months, the baby seals will be cared for in Pieterburen, so everybody is invited to come along and see them. People wanting to adopt a seal, or make a donation are very welcome. There is more information about that here.
Update 06-04-2010: Lenie contacted Edwin Evers live this morning. He has asked to call the seal Daan, which is the most popular name of the moment.
06-04-2010 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
