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The Seals of Gweek Seal Sanctuary
On Valentine’s Day 2004, the Boyles were preparing for a romantic night in when the phone rang. An hour later, Glenn Boyle was abseiling down a Cornish cliff on a darkening winter’s evening to rescue a stranded grey seal pup. On the small, spray-swept beach, he wrapped the angry little seal in a towel before running a series of tests. They showed that the pup both needed and was worth rescue, so it was hauled up the cliff
and whisked off to the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, Cornwall.
Better known to its visitors for its charismatic collection of 17 seals and sea lions, the Gweek Sanctuary’s chief function is to save an average of 35 seal pups from certain death annualy.
There are about 1,500 grey seals around Cornwall. “They shouldn’t really be here,” says 39 year-old Boyle, the Sanctuary’s Curator, “Grey seals historically breed on ice, but, forced here by the last Ice Age, they adapted to breeding on land.” They’ve survived in Cornwall because they can
breed in secluded caves, but two factors threaten their existence: wild Atlantic storm surges pluck pups from caves and separate them from their mothers at sea, and increasing tourism frightens seals away from traditional territories. Boyle shrugs: “We get the impression that they are hanging on here rather than thriving.”
The Sanctuary was set up in 1968 by an ex-miner. He rescued one stranded seal, got a reputation, and was deluged by stranded pups. In 1975 he expanded to the banks of the famously pretty Helford River at Gweek, where the Sanctuary stands today.
At the Sanctuary, a rescued pup stays in isolation, undergoing tests, before joining other pups in the main Seal Hospital wards. Feeding and taking temperature - the latter in the traditional veterinary way - are a trial because the pups are so spirited (i.e. vicious). That is why 25 year-old Sanctuary worker Marianne Fellows loves grey seals: “I like that when they’re on death’s door they’re still fighting. They’ll still bite you.”
“Critical period is the first 72 hours,” says Boyle, “If we can keep and animal stable over the first three days, then the survival rate is close to 100%. Including the first three days it’s 88-92%.”
“It’s absolutely gutting when they die,” sighs Fellows.
The most common ailments - hypoglycaemia, malnourishment, dehydration, and hypothermia - are due to separation from mother’s milk and warmth. The cure is to feed the pups up, sometimes by force, until they are ready to rehabilitate by joining some of the residents in the Convalescence Pool. It’s here where the fun begins.
The 17 resident pinipeds (group including seals, sea lions and walruses) in the Gweek Sanctuary are unable to live in the wild for various reasons. The resulting collection of disabled and delinquent
animals is so varied physically and character-wise that they could be a Disney cartoon’s supporting cast.
Yulelogs is a blubbersome 16 year-old Grey Seal, rescued as a pup, then kicked out of a Lincolnshire Park for bad behaviour, but too human-impacted for the wild. His Pool-mate,
Flipper, 24, has breathing difficulties after swallowing chemicals. In the next door pool is Rocky, a colossal, blind Californian Sea Lion with a saggital crest like an Elvis quiff. He shares with Pepper, a big-eyed, sleek ex-showgirl from the States [top two pictures. Pepper has died since this article was written - I got a little misty eyed when I heard, as she was my favourite].
In the larger Convalescence pool, rehabilitating pups play with a motley crew of adults. All ages dart and weave in the pool, or flop about on the poolside like Labradors in sleeping bags. Blind Lizzie takes pups for rides on her back. Ray, brain-damaged and hairless, smiles happily at them.
One should avoid anthropomorphising, but the residents seem a happy gang, grateful for the supportive environment of the Sanctuary and the care of the seal team. “Their intelligence level is about the same as dogs’,” says Boyle, so they are certainly capable of emotion. Boyle has a PHD in Marine Biology, yet scrubs the pools most mornings. He believes that contact with his pinipeds is more useful in building an understanding of the
animals than classroom hours. He is also an advocate for seal rights: “I can represent their interests in a world of diminishing marine resources. When fisheries get into trouble they tend to look outside rather than at themselves. Historically, seals have been at the sharp end of that.”
Boyle’s team of four seal-handlers are all highly
qualified academically too, and, like Boyle, split their time between feeding / scrubbing and the more specialised medical care of the animals. As much as they love the seals, they are always happy to return them to the wild. Fellows explains: “You’ve had them five or six months and by that time you’re sick of the sight of them. They’re not the seals that you rescued. They’re fat little blimps that need to go back to where they belong.”
Seal Facts
Sea Lions have flappy ears, Seals have holes for ears
Seal urine smells like bacon
Grey Seals live in Harems of one bull and up to 10 cows
Life expectancy for male Grey Seals is around 20 years, for females it’s 35
In October this year, a South African woman’s nose was bitten off by a seal that she was trying to help back to the water
For more on the National Seal Sanctuary see: www.sealsanctuary.co.uk, or call 01326 221361.
Article printed 17th December 2005 in the Telegraph, all copyright theirs. Photos copyright Angus Watson 2005
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