story of a seal rescue
Silver our resident
sealMeet some of our recent friends who have stayed at Hillswick
Some of the images may be distressing to some on this page
|
story of a seal rescue
Silver our resident
seal |
Wildlife
Rescues Meet some of our recent friends who have stayed at Hillswick Some of the images may be distressing to some on this page |
|
Many creatures
suffer injury for a variety of reasons. Most who come to the Sanctuary
return to their wild habitat, we hope you enjoy meeting them.
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| Wolfie |
Wolfie, a young otter, arrrived at the sanctuary from
Catfirth on 5th January 2008. A man had heard him calling for his mother
for 24 hours and the following morning found him in a horse box. Ron
Patterson S.S.P.C.A. picked him up and brought him to the sanctuary. We
realised he was unweaned so the first task was to encourage him to suck
from a bottle. Thank goodness he eagerly responded to this as otters can
be difficult.
Click to see Wolfie's own
page |
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| Victoria |
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| Victoria came from Scatness after a storm, she was lying up on rocks. Ron Patterson of SSPCA and Jan went to pick her up. She was obviously not coping in the wild. She was full of worms, abscesses and badly congested. Nevertheless she responded beautifully to treatment and was soon desperate to get back to the wild as you can see by the photographs! Thanks to Victoria who found her. |
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| Seafield |
Information about Seafield our amazing survivor coming soon!!
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| Weemoon | Weemoon was washed up onto Heylor beach North Mavine along with many other seal pups during a severe North Westerly gale, from the pupping grounds at Uyea. The umbilicus was still on so we knew we would have our work cut out to keep her alive. From the beginning her will to survive shone through. We tube fed her which is very distressing for one full month along with crushed up vitamins. We also got special powdered milk for sea mammals from Alaska this, we are sure, helped her recovery. She then started to suck on fish and finally to eat it. Because she was so small we kept her at the sanctuary for four months. It was a great day when we released her but left us with a mixture of feelings .... good luck to Weemoon. |
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| Weeman | Weeman came in at the same time as Weemoon after the storm. He was still unweaned and unmoulted apart from his head. He had a great character and soon let us know he didn't want tubing too often and was more interested in sucking on fish. He went from filleted fish to whole fish in no time at all! We had him around six weeks when he let us know he'd had quite enough of captivity so we released him at the same time as Gabriella. Good luck Weeman!! |
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| Gabriella | Gabriella amazed us by hauling out over the rocks right in front of the sanctuary doors. She was barely alive, infested with worms and was showing signs of pneumonia. We started treatment and slowly but surely she responded. She was fully moulted but had not been coping in the wild. Within ten days she was eating more fish than any of the other seals and when we released her she did not look back to say thank you!! Good luck Gabriella! |
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| Black Bic and Biro | Black Bic and Biro were yet more casualties from Heylor beach North Mavine. All unweaned and unmoulted they were like the gang of three which is why we called them Black Bic and Biro after a young Shetland band. No force feeding was necessary they just all sucked on fish and eventually started to eat whole fish. They were released all together and we were left wondering would they stay together as Biro, the female was very much in charge of the two males. Happy journeys! |
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