Season’s first baby seals released
On Friday 27th and Saturday 28th of August, a total of nine young seals were released back into the Dollard. They were young seals that had been found – with their umbilical cord still attached, so no more than four days old - at the beginning of June, along the Ems Dollard and the Wadden Sea coast of Groningen. As always it was a cheery event, with many adopters and finders present.
The young seals had a weight of around 9 kilos on arrival; they were released weighing over 35 kilos. They will need the extra weight as a reserve for the period in which they are adjusting to their natural habitat. No seal is taught to catch fish by its mother; when the seals grow up with their mother, she nurses them for four weeks and then leaves them to fend for themselves.
In the beginning they are not very skillful at catching small fish or shrimps. This is why the young seals lose so much weight during the first weeks on their own. Luckily, the young seals released by us are able to catch their own fish. Seals that drop below 23 kilos before winter will have a tough time. In the following weeks the other 116 young seals, which are now staying at the SRRC, will also be released. Most of them already weigh more than 20 kilos.
Unfortunately, we are already getting seals in with severe lungworm infections. They are from the provinces Zeeland, South-Holland, North-Holland and from the islands Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland and Schiermonnikoog.
08-29-2010 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
