Baby seal found on city streets is learning to eat fish so he can swim free
The underweight pup was found far from the water in New Haven, Conn.
Animal rescuer Sarah Callan was surprised, to say the least, when she learned about a baby seal flopping around the busy streets of New Haven, Conn.
Callan is the manager of animal rescue at the Mystic Aquarium in Stonington, Conn., which runs a 24-hour hotline for reports of lost or injured marine life in the area.
It's not unusual, she says, to get a call about a grey seal turning up in a sleepy beachside community in the east coast state. But on Sunday, the New Haven Police Department called to report a tiny pup stranded on an intersection in the city.
"[I] never, never would have imagined this," Callan told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. "I've been in this field for well over a decade, and as soon as you think you've heard the craziest story … then we get another call."
The pup, she says, likely wandered inland in search of sand dunes and grass, which they sometimes use for protection from weather and predators. But instead, he ended up on a streets roughly half a kilometre from the water.
As more of the city's shoreline gets developed, she says, encounters with marine life become more common.
'Everyone's amazed at how small and tiny he is'
The pup, Callan says, is now recuperating at the aquarium, "doing great," and preparing for his eventual release.
Aquarium staff estimates he's about five or six weeks old. He was dehydrated when he arrived, but otherwise no worse for wear.
But before he can be released, Callan says, he needs to get his weight up. Right now, he weighs about 28 pounds (12.7 kilograms). But at his age, she says, he should be closer to 100 pounds (45.3 kilograms).
Seal pups, she says, usually wean from their mothers at three to four weeks old, at which point they fend for themselves.
"Everyone's amazed at how small and tiny he is," she said. "He hasn't had that experience on his own where he's learned how to hunt."
So far, staff have mostly been feeding him a diluted fish formula. But they are teaching him to swallow fish whole on his own — and he's already making progress.
"He actually ate on his own for the first time today, a fish. So that was a huge milestone," Callan said. "Now we just have to get him to eat the whole fish. He ate half of the fish."
Still waiting for his name
The Mystic Aquarium's policy is to let those who found a rescued animal bestow a name upon it. In this case, that means the police.
The department seems to have taken a liking to the pup, introducing him on social media as "the newest addition to the department."
"On site today, they told us a couple of the names that are in the running. I think the name that's in the lead right now is Chappy, because the seal was found on Chapel Street," Callan said. "I also heard Vinny was in the running, and maybe Tyler."
Once Chappy, Vinny or maybe Tyler is bigger and better at eating, Callan says staff will release him with a tracker.
"That way we'll be able to make sure that we're monitoring his behaviour on a regular basis to make sure those movements are typical for his species," she said.
"And if we had any concerns, we would know his location and we could always send someone to go check on him."
Interview produced by Livia Dyring
