Mid morning at The Lizard Point and a lovely family are worried because their two children have found what they believe to be a very young seal pup at the back of one of the caves at the Lizard. Fortunately the girls are very sensible and leave the animal alone and alert their parents. It is important not to go near a young pup or allow dogs to sniff around them as they have probably not been abandoned, but just left on the beach while mum grabs a quick snack - she is feeding the pup with her breast milk and needs to keep her strength up. Unfortunately if the mother returns and can smell other animals (including humans!!) on her baby she may well abandon it. The girl's father called the Seal Sanctuary at Gweek and they responded very quickly by sending someone to see if the baby was alright. Mum was swimming in the sea just off the beach along with a male seal (once the female has given birth she is ready to mate again). With the help of the cafe and the Seal Sanctuary the beach was closed to give the mother a chance to come back to her pup. By the middle of the afternoon the tide had come in sufficiently for the mother seal to venture on to the beach and back to her pup. She stayed with the pup for a while, which for us was confirmation that nothing had tainted the pup and mum was still going to look after it.

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By the following day the guys from the sanctuary had set up a watch rota to make sure nothing interfered with the pup. Those who were watching from above were treated to a view of the pup as it made it's first visit to the sea. Not impressed by being buffeted by the little waves mum came ashore and fed her baby in full view of the crowd.

Well done to the Seal Sanctuary - this was the first time in 7 years that a pup found on a public beach was reunited with its mother successfully. And very well done to the girls for being so sensible and looking after the interests of the animal.

Pictures of the seal pup on the beach and feeding are courtesy of Dan Jarvis from the Seal Sanctuary.

Unfortunately the pup was lost the following night when a storm hit Cornwall, it was thought the baby got caught up in the kelp washed ashore and drowned.