Five seal pups have been released back into the wild after being cared for at Gweek’s seal sanctuary from just a few weeks’ old.

Grey seal pups Merlin, Polar Bear, Penguin, Panda, and Arctic Fox were all released at Porthtowan Beach yesterday afternoon by staff from the Cornish Seal Sanctuary.

The planned release is a major operation involving several members of the sanctuary team, which requires the rehabilitation pool to be drained and then each pup being herded into a cage for transfer to a trailer.

Once driven onto the beach, each pup is then safely released back into the sea.

Tamara Cooper, curator at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary, said: “We are all so pleased to have been able to release the pups.

“We’ll miss them because we’ve got to know them all so well, but at the same time it will be great to see them back in the wild where they belong.”

Usually as soon as a pup has reached 40kg and has received a clean bill of health they are then released back into the wild.

There are a variety of reasons as to why grey seal pups need to be rescued, from malnutrition to being separated from their mum at just a few days old.

Merlin, a female grey seal rescued from Tintagel, arrived at sanctuary at just two weeks old. She had an ulcerated eye which unfortunately had to be removed, but the team were confident with her progress through rehabilitation that she would be okay to be released back into the wild despite her only having one eye.

Arctic Fox and Penguin both went to the sanctuary with respiratory infections. Artic Fox, a male grey seal rescued from Duckpool Beach in Bude was eight weeks old, while Penguin, a female grey seal rescued from St Loy, arrived at six weeks old.

The sanctuary plans to continue releasing pups as soon as they are a healthy weight and well enough to return back to the wild.