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| Cornish Seal Sanctuary
| | Issue 208
| 5th November 2022
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Tamara Cooper, the Sanctuary´s Curator said "It is with huge sadness that we announce the passing of Noito, one of our resident Sea Lions here at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, on 4th November 2022. This is a great loss to the Sanctuary family and to everyone who cared for him, worked with him, met him and loved him.
Noito arrived at the Sanctuary back in 2009, alongside his half-brother Diego. From the moment he arrived, we recognised that Noito was incredibly intelligent and, at just four years old, he had an amazing confidence and quickly asserted himself as our dominant male."
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"This intelligence proved invaluable when the team trained Noito to perform daily husbandry checks such as eye treatments and body checks, allowing the team to take the best care of him. It also meant he was always keen to learn and tried his hardest to understand what was being asked of him - we couldn´t have been prouder of what this incredible sealion was able to learn in such a short time. However, while he learnt quickly, he could also train the team if we weren´t careful! In fact, you could never trick Noito into doing something he didn´t want to do, and he always did things on his own terms."
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"Some of our favourite characteristics of Noito included his love of sucking ice cubes off the floor, roaring until he found them. He also loved catching them in the pool, as well as playing with his fire hose toys and feed balls."
Often, in the mornings, his cute squishy nose would be pressed up against the glass of the underwater viewing area, alongside Diego´s, which was a welcome hello to the team walking by. At other times, he enjoyed a scratch on the neck (on his terms) with a broom and harboured a deep love for pallets - especially when you were trying to move them (even chasing after them at the end of an enrichment session)!
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"Noito and Diego had a typical brotherly relationship. They would compete over food and spend hours play fighting and wrestling on the haul-out and in the water, but they also had a huge love for each other. Without fail, every night the pair would curl up together and sleep - almost lying on top of each other for comfort."
"Over the years, Noito quickly became a beloved member of the Sanctuary family, building incredible bonds with his care team and guests who visited him. It was a pleasure for our team to work with him and his unmatched trust and incredible patience. It´s been an honour to learn from him, he was a great teacher and a great listener."
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"While Noito had been in relatively good health throughout his time at the sanctuary, he had been treated for eye complaints over the last three years. However, during the last 12 months, he had been doing well (largely thanks to the efforts of the team and the vets) and his sudden decline in health over the last few weeks came as a huge shock to the team."
"Our incredible vets, Head & Head and IZVG, were quick to support Noito and advise the animal care team, immediately placing Noito on precautionary medication which, at first, appeared to be working."
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"However, while we were hopeful he had turned a corner, earlier this week, he took a turn for the worse. Despite everyone´s efforts in the last few days to help Noito, he sadly passed away overnight. We are currently awaiting lab results from a post-mortem examination to fully understand the cause of his passing."
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The Cornish Sanctuary´s main focus now is caring for Diego, who always looked to his brother for support and reassurance. The team are spending as much time as possible with him, scheduling extra feeds and enrichment to help him through this difficult time.
"As we say goodbye to Noito, we would also like to say a big thank you to everyone who met and loved him over the last 13 years of his time here at the Sanctuary, from his adopters to our guests who were inspired by him every day."
Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive to the animal care team at this hard time, and the wider Cornish Seal Sanctuary team, who will miss him so much.
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