The Two Oceans Aquarium shared two videos of recent seal entanglement rescues; the seals in question show just how tough these rescues can be.
Cape Town, South Africa (28 October 2020) – Animal rescues are not always what the 3-minute videos on Facebook make them out to be. Sometimes it takes many failed attempts and one shining moment of pure luck! That is what the Two Oceans Aquarium got recently during two seal entanglement cases.
One case took them many failed attempts and frustrations before the success, and the other was a success by brilliant luck!
The message from both rescues is clear, you need to cut all cords and straps before throwing them away. If they end up in the ocean, they can be harmful to all wildlife.
The Cape Town harbour, where the Two Ocean’s Aquarium is located, is often full of seals lounging on the docks. This gives many passers-by a lovely show of the natural world but often people spot seals entangled in ropes, wire and other human waste items. Thankfully (and sadly, because it happens so often), the staff at the aquarium have become pros at freeing seals from entanglements.
Below you will see the video of their easy case and then the next video, a rather tough one. In both cases, the staff refused to give up. This isn’t the first time they had to get clever with an entanglement case, do you remember the seal ninja? Take a look here if you missed it!
Today’s seal rescue was a tad easier! Definitely helps when they are a little too chubby to make a run for it.
P.S. Please remember to cut up cords and straps before discarding of them! @VandAWaterfront #cutaloop #sealrescue #animalrescue pic.twitter.com/4aoaWnq5FI
— Two Oceans Aquarium (@2OceansAquarium) October 27, 2020
“The seal monitor team of the Two Oceans Aquarium Education Foundation, together with some extra muscle from the Two Oceans Aquarium were finally able to corner and disentangle a small male Cape fur seal that they’d been trying to help for the past month in the V&A Waterfront.
Some viral seal rescue videos make it look easy, but in an urban setting with plenty of escape routes and underwater hiding spots, its becomes much trickier and seals can only be disentangled by stealth, or by cornering them – tactics that don’t work easily of fur seals, which have evolved specifically to be able to gallop away from land predators!”
They were finally able to pin down the seal and make its life a little easier.
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