Alan Rickman was rescued on 1st January 2024
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British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) received a telephone call during the morning of New Year´s Day 2024 from a member of the public about a seal pup in the harbour of St Michael´s Mount.
Dan, one of the area coordinators for South West Cornwall, arranged for Kirk, a volunteer marine mammal medic of BDMLR, to meet him at Marazion, where they were able to catch the duck boat across the causeway as it was high tide to assess the pup.
Kirk carried out an assessment of the pup and found to have a long thin but shallow cut on his back, a missing claw with exposed bone on the front right flipper and some oedema in the right eye, a normal temperature and weight of 19kg. The pup was uplifted back via the boat and then transported to the BDMLR Cornwall Seal Hospital for further care and treatment.
| | Photos Credit : Dan Jarvis - BDMLR
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The pup stayed at the BDMLR´s seal hospital in Cornwall for initial treatment and care until a pen was made available on the 8th of January 2024 at the Sanctuary´s hospital at Gweek where he is continuing his rehabilitation journey.
| Photos Credit : Lizzi Larbalestier - BDMLR
Photos below were taken on 3rd & 7th January 2024 in the BDMLR´s hospital.
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This 10-12 weeks old male grey seal pup has been named Alan Rickman by the animal care specialist team.
Update - 19th January 2024 : Alan is progressing well in the hospital, it will not be too long before he is moved to the outside pools for his next rehabilitation. This photo below was taken on the 19th of January 2024.
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Update - 29th January 2024 : Alan is now in the outside nursery pool number 3, this means he is on the road to recovery and mixing with other seal pups, also has a deeper pool to swim in. Pups in the nursery pools will be learning how to behave in the wild, interacting with other seals and also competing for their fish, which are all vital skills they will need when they are released back out into the wild.
Alan´s flipper tag ID number is SL284 (yellow).
These photos of Alan were taken on the 27th of January 2024.
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Update - 27th February 2024 : The weather conditions in Cornwall were perfect to release some of the seal pups who had been staying at the Sanctuary for the past few months were released back into the wild on the 27th of February 2024 at Perranuthnoe beach in South Cornwall.
Alan, along with lots of other rescued pups, were all at a good weight and fully recovered thanks to the care and expertise of the brilliant Animal Care Team. It is such an amazing feeling for the team to see them happily "galumphing" back home. Good luck little ones.
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