Cornish Seal Sanctuary Issue 228 February 2024 Back New Residents Coming Soon! If you have visited the Cornish Seal Sanctuary recently you will have noticed improvement works taking place onsite. The Seal Sanctuary have specialist building teams working their socks off to get their old penguin enclosure ready for some very exciting new residents, who will be joining us soon! We are really grateful for your patience and understanding as we complete these essential works. A Special ´Wonder´ful Valentine´s Day Treat! The Cornish Seal Sanctuary gave their resident seals a different kind of treat this Valentine´s Day, when local harpist Alice Wonder joined them for a musical entertainment session with a difference! Animal Care Supervisor, Megan, explains "We always try to incorporate music into our enrichment programme here at the Sanctuary, this can involve playing our seals different sounds like the ocean, or recorded music to stimulate them. To have a live musician here on-site playing for the animals is a real treat!"   Read More. We are so pleased to see that the little penguin waddle is settling happily into their new home at Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, Scotland! After the long journey from Cornwall to Scotland they arrived to meet their new friends and join a much larger group of penguins.   Squidge in particular is loving being a part of a bigger group of juveniles and keeps himself around them.   The Sanctuary team are sure they are all loving the cooler climate up in Scotland! Work has begun on the penguin´s old enclosure at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary in preparation for the exciting new residents who we will be welcoming this year! The Sanctuary really appreciate your patience and understanding as the team work to improve pens and pools. Here is a short video of one of the kit Beavers enjoying a late afternoon dip in the pond in their nursery enclosure!   Enjoy! A HUGE thank you to everyone who took part in the "Name the Beaver competition." We can now reveal the new Beaver kits are...ASPEN, BUTTERCUP and SORRELL! Congratulations to the winners, Faye Tippler, Marie Crawley and Corrina Bentley, who chose the Beavers´ Fantastic new names. The kits will be moving into the main enclosure in the next few weeks, so be sure to come and say hi soon! Fancy adopting one of the new Beaver kits?   Click here to get started. Interesting Fact....Why do Beavers have orange teeth...This is because, whereas other rodents have magnesium in their tooth enamel, Beavers have iron. So, Beavers have orange teeth for the same reason we have red blood. The iron causes the orange colouring in Beavers´ teeth, makes the teeth stronger against mechanical stress, and makes them more resistant to acid. Each rescued seal pup is weighed every week to find out who has reached the ideal target weight of 30+kg. André Braugher and Meryl Streep were weighed and both were over 30kg, so were ready to be released back into the wild on the 1st of February 2024.   They had fully completed their rehabilitation and it was time for them to go home. It was such a beautiful cold crispy winter´s morning as we watched the seal pups being released.   We all wished them good luck and waved with tears in our eyes. Pup update : 19th February 2024 - Did you hear the amazing Senior Animal Care Specialist Anne talking to Zoe Ball this morning on the @BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show?   If you missed it, catch up on BBC Sounds! Anne and Zoe were chatting about one of the seal pups, David Tennant, who has been recovering at the sanctuary for a couple of months now.   He is such a character and can be quite grumpy (although in these photos we think it looks like he is singing!) David is doing really well in his rehabilitation and will be at a good weight to be released soon. If the "real David Tennant" was listening, the Seal Sanctuary would love to invite you to his release down here in beautiful Cornwall! Pup update : 24th February 2024 - These photos of the rescued seal pups, Alastair Mackenzie, Buster Keaton, Carrie Fisher, Christian Bale, Daniel Craig, David Tennant, Denzel Washington, Joe Thomas, John Cleese, Karl Pilkington, Kit Harington, Matilda and Muffy, were taken on the 24th of February 2024 in the outside pools and Florence Pugh, Daisy Ridley, Ricky Gervais and Julia Roberts, are in the hospital.   Click here or on the image of your choice below to see a larger version. Enjoy! Pup 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.   The pups, Alan Rickman, Buster Keaton, Carrie Fisher, Christian Bale, Daisy Ridley, Daniel Craig, David Tennant, Denzel Washington, John Cleese, Karl Pilkington and Kit Harington, 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. They were released back into the wild on 27th of February 2024 at Perranuthnoe beach in South Cornwall. Pup update : 29th February 2024 - Alastair Mackenzie, Julia Roberts, Matilda and Muffy are in the rehabilitation pool, just need to put on a little more weight before they are released back into the wild.   Florence Pugh, Ricky Gervais and Joe Thomas are still in the hospital at the moment. Pleeeeaaaasssseeeee Sponsor me and my friends while we stay temporarily for a few months at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary receiving excellent care by the lovely Animal Care Team. We are getting stronger eating lots of fish and your favourite resident seal, Ray, keeps giving us Pups a hard stare, as he thinks there are none left for him - this is me...giving him the look back!   Please help the Sanctuary to look after us! The Seal Sanctuary issues seal pup warning amid wild winter storms! Blustery storm conditions have sparked a warning from the Cornish Seal Sanctuary about young pups struggling along our coastlines. The Sanctuary, based in Gweek, near Helston, is urging people to keep their eyes peeled for the grey seal pups amid a flurry of calls from concerned wildlife spotters. With the larger waves and strong winds, many pups have already been spotted taking shelter on beaches, leading to fears of increased risk of human disturbance.   Click here to read more. We hope you enjoy the selection of photos taken in February 2024, click here or on the photo of your choice below to see a larger version. Click here to view the latest Sanctuary´s map. Click here to find out what to do if you find a Seal Pup or a Seal? Six things to remember when spotting seals in the wild! Each released seal pup is given a flipper tag with an unique ID number. This helps the Cornish Seal Sanctuary and the Cornwall Seal Group Research Trust (CSGRT) to track and monitor where pups end up and how they are doing once they are back in the wild. This month the following seals were spotted in the wild by members of the CSGRT from around the coast of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly:- Nemo on 1st February 2024 Horseradish on 2nd, 7th & 12th February 2024 Prudie on 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th February 2024 Turtle on 2nd, 5th & 9th February 2024 Mr Darcy on 3rd February 2024 Frodo Baggins on 5th February 2024 Orion on 5th, 8th & 12th February 2024 Ginger on 5th, 6th, 8th, 15th & 17th February 2024 Lewis on 9th February 2024 Saffron on 9th, 16th, 18th & 23rd February 2024 Guinness on 12th & 29th February 2024 Pippin 14th & 16th February 2024 Mayonnaise on 16th, 27th & 29th February 2024 Jim Carrey (photos below) on 18th & 25th February 2024 A-Ha, Fiyero, Riley and Star Anise on 29th February 2024 © Photos Credit : Kerstin Hartmann - CSGRT - 18th February 2024 The information regarding tagged seals seen in the wild is copyright of the CSGRT. By monitoring the behaviour of seals after release back into the wild, the Cornish Seal Sanctuary and the CSGRT can use this information to define the best practice standards and policies that they can share with the international rescue community. Each seal´s fur pattern is unique and enables the CSGRT volunteers track them for life. Seals face many challenges, yet we all depend on them to balance our marine ecosystem, which is essential to make the oxygen we breathe. Seals are our globally rare wildlife tourist attraction, helping diversify coastal economic prosperity. This news update has been put together by volunteers/supporters of the Cornish Seal Sanctuary.

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