SAVED BY THE KINDNESS OF ONE VERY SPECIAL COUPLE

HOW ANDY AND GAYNOR CHRISTIE AND THEIR TEAM OF DEDICATED HELPERS BECAME SCOTLAND’S ANIMAL RESCUERS

HESSILHEAD Wildlife Rescue Hospital is the longestrunning wildlife centre in Scotland – treating up to 4,000 wild birds and animals each year.

But recent devastating storms have meant large numbers of grey seals who survived the initial gales are now facing a struggle to survive, with Hessilhead battling to house their largest-ever number of pups needing rehabilitation.

Last month – for the first time in its 43-year-history – the rescue centre had to turn an animal away (a grey seal pup), recognising they had finally run out of room.

Despite quickly finding capacity again, Hessilhead founders Andy and Gaynor Christie know more seals will come.

Atlantic grey seals matter, here in Scotland, because – both globally and by number – they are rare. As a result, they are one of the few UK animal species of international conservation importance.

Nearly half of the world’s grey seal population live in British and Irish waters – with 90% of these here in Scotland.

Yet beyond the tireless day-to-day seal rehabilitation efforts of the Christies and their team, there is a deeper story across the decades that Andy – Scotland’s first ever countryside ranger – and Gaynor, have spent at the coal-face of wildlife rescue

Theirs is a valuable first-hand account of the changes in Scotland’s wildlife populations. Shifting seasons and habitat encroachment has seen some species numbers plummet since the Christies took in their first animal in the 1970s – an orphaned fox cub nursed back to health from their council flat in Lochwinnoch.

This extraordinary couple tell which of our birds and animals they believe are now becoming vanishingly rare, and why what they do – and what we can all do – matters so much for the future of Scotland’s wild creatures.

MEET THE RESCUED CREATURES

Mowgli, a poorly grey seal pup, is settling nicely into his hospital pen – in an enclosure that had, until recently, been a storage cupboard.

All around him are more convalescing seals – some needing antibiotics, heat lamps,

and pungent fish soup to help them gain weight – others splashing around together in a succession of small swimming pools.

But this scene of young seals everywhere you look has become the ‘new normal’ at Hessilhead since last November’s Storm Arwen wreaked devastation at the height of pupping season.

Record numbers of Atlantic grey seal pups that survived the initial gales are still, months later, being brought into the centre by volunteers – after being found injured, alone and starving on beaches.

“They come in really weak, weighing 11kg, and we really need to get them to 30kg if they have a chance of surviving out at sea,” says Gaynor, who co-founded the wildlife rescue centre with conservation expert husband Andy in 1979.

“Grey seal pups need to fatten up quickly and learn to fish. What’s been surprising is how many that are still coming in to us.

“These last few months have brought in the largest number of seals we’ve ever

One of Hessilhead's many seal patients – this time a Harbour Seal – gaining swimming strength before being returned to the sea