Early start to seal rescue season

An unusually early seal rescue by the RSPCA has marked the beginning of the season for the animal welfare charity in a busy part of Wales.

Last year officers saved the first of 100 seals in the west and south-west of Wales on 9 Sept and are bracing themselves for another potentially busy period.

This year however, the influx of sick and abandoned seals has begun earlier, with a moulted pup found alone on Abereiddy beach on 30 July.

Sadly, the pup was thin for her age and badly congested so has now been transferred from the RSPCA’S Taunton-based centre to a specialist wildlife facility before a planned return to the wild.

This season the West Hatch Centre is naming all rescues after rare species of wildlife, with this first pup affectionately named Aye-aye after a rare Madagascan species of lemur.