Seal Pup Rescued From Underneath Car

Monday, 30 October 2023 15:18

Seal pup asleep on beach Credit BDMLR/Facebook

A young seal pup has been rescued from Fliquet after he was washed up in this weekend's high tide.

A dog walker discovered the pup on Saturday morning asleep on the beach.

After a call to the JSCPA, volunteers from the Jersey British Divers Marine Life Rescue came to the bay.

They believed to have spotted the mother in the water staying close, so quickly closed the beach, ensuring the pup would not be disturbed.

This would give the mum a chance to get her youngster.

However, Donna de Gruchy from Jersey BDMLR says the mum did not stay too long.

"We monitored the area for 24 hours, and, unfortunately, the mother only stayed for around 4 hours.

"On Sunday morning, there was no mum and no pup either, so two of the medics then began a search."

Donna says the 'determined pup' had gone on a mission to find food.

"There was nothing to be found from the search and just as we were getting back to our cars a runner said 'Are you looking for a seal he's up the road in someone's garage'.

"It was crazy where we found him, he'd made his way up the slip at Fliquet, gone around the fork at the bottom, passing the house that looks like a castle, around the bend and all the way up to the next bend and found himself under a car in a private garage."

Fliquet's journey off the beach. Credit: BDMLR/Facebook

Donna says that even if the mother had stayed in the area, after the pups trip up the lane, she would 'probably not want anything to do with him'.

"We had no choice but to bring the pup in, after a 24-hour ordeal he was absolutely starving. He was stabilised and received vital fluids."

The small pup, aptly named Fliquet, has been flown over to the UK, where he will undergo rehabilitation.

"Usually, we would send stranded seals over to Guernsey, but they are closed for refurbishment at the minute so we had no option but to seal Fliquet over to the UK.

"We managed to find a charity called Civil Air Support, which is a group of pilots who like to volunteer their plane and time to put something back into the community.

"Fliquet is doing really well, he is really strong and feisty, so he is definitely feeling better."

Donna told us what is next for the pup.

"At the moment, he is isolated from the other animals just so we can make sure there's nothing infectious going on with him.

"Then he will slowly start being integrated with the other pups at the RSPCA centre, they'll obviously grow larger and start to feed on their own in the next couple of months.

"Hopefully, he will be released back in the wild in the next 4 - 6 months."