Orphaned seal pup rescued from storage and rehabilitated at Sussex animal rescue

Pappardelle, a gray seal pup, was discovered alone in a storage, a mile inshore of St Catherine’s Bay in Jersey.

At only some days old, the pup was flown to RSPCA Mallydams Wood, in Hastings, for rehabilitation, the place he has been suckling on fish soup from a substitute ‘mother’ manufactured from waterproof trousers, towels and synthetic teats.

This distinctive means of feeding was thought up by Mallydams colleague Penny Taberer to keep away from having to tube-feed the pup, which might be fairly anxious.

RSPCA Mallydams wildlife assistant Ash Peters stated: “[Pappardelle] was quite weak and wobbly when he was admitted to Mallydams and that’s probably because he hadn’t eaten much.

“He was examined thoroughly and happily we found nothing of concern.

“He’s noisy, stroppy and grumpy, just as a grey seal pup should be!”

Weighing an encouraging 15kg, he was already fairly plump and eager to feed.

This season, Mallydams’ theme for naming gray seal pups is pasta. The wildlife centre named this little seal Pappardelle, which suggests ‘to gobble up’.

Ash added: “Pappardelle will be with us for a while – at least three or four months. He’s still very young and hasn’t even lost his white fur yet, normally moulted at around three weeks old.

“He’ll need to be weaned onto fish and to reach around 35 to 40kg in weight before he can be returned to the wild.

“We plan to release him with some of the other grey seal pups we’re looking after here.

“We’d like to thank the BDMLR and their medics, who carried out the rescue and arranged the transportation. We’d also like to thank the aircraft pilot and staff who helped with the transfer of Pappardelle to Mallydams”.

It prices RSPCA Mallydams about £60 a day in fish alone to take care of the seals in its care, so all monetary donations are welcomed by the charity.

For extra data on what to do should you see a wild animal in misery, go to the RSPCA’s web site.