Owen Wilson was rescued on 2nd September 2023
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Owen Wilson, a day old male whitecoat grey pup, was rescued on the 2nd of September 2023 after he was found at 7.30am snoozing on the pier steps on the slipway at St Ives beach.
Volunteer medics from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) were called to go and check on the whitecoat pup to see whether his mum was nearby.
The tide was against them and rising fast on the pier, also trip boats were due to use the slipway very shortly at 11am. By 10.30am a decision was made by the BDMLR´s coordinator, as there was no sign of the pup´s mum, to rescue the pup and take him to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary´s hospital for care and rehabilitation.
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Photos credit (below) : Tash Murch - BDMLR
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These photos below were taken just as Owen was arriving at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary outside the reception building. He was handed over by BDMLR medics in the car park. All new seal pups arrivals have to be tested for avian flu before admittance due to the risk to resident animals, especially the penguins.
Members of the animal care team specialists carried out a clinical assessment of Owen and found he had puncture wounds on the back of his head and neck and weighed 17.8kg with a temperature of 37.6 degrees.
Photos credit (below) : Kirk Russell - BDMLR
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Update - 14th September 2023 : Owen has received some medication for his puncture wounds and ulcers in his eyes. As you can see from Owen´s face and front flippers, he is starting to moult. This means he is beginning to lose his handsome whitecoat and soon it will be replaced with the waterproof adult coat.
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Update - 30th September 2023 : As you can see from the photos below, Owen has now moulted his beautiful baby whitecoat and is now looking very handsome in his slick grey unique coat.
He is currently in the hospital pen number 4 and just needs to put on a bit more weight before he will be moved down to the outside nursery pools to start his next stage of rehabilitation and to learn how to compete for fish during feeding time. Click here to see larger versions of these photos taken on 28th September 2023.
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Update - 29th October 2023 : Owen has graduated from the hospital and is now in the outside nursery pools down on-site for his next stage of rehabilitation and to learn how to compete for fish during feeding time. He is currently in nursery pool number 4 with another rescued seal pup named Sienna Miller.
Owen´s flipper ID tag number is SL252 (yellow).
Click here to see larger versions of these photos taken on 27th of October 2023.
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Update - 22nd November 2023 : Owen Wilson along with Judi and Jack Black have completed their rehabilitation and they were released back into the wild on 21st November 2023 at Perranuthnoe beach. Click here to read the Press Release. Click here to watch a short video of the release.
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Click here to see a selection of photos which were taken by Gill Fisher.
Photos credit (below) : Gill Fisher - BDMLR
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