A FEMALE grey seal pup christened ‘Uno’ has become the first casualty of the Cornish Seal Sanctuary’s 40th rescue season on its current site in Gweek.

The day old pup was plucked from a beach at Gwithian after a day-long vigil by local wildlife volunteers and no sign of a returning mother.

The Sanctuary has rescued, cared for and returned to the wild in the region of 2,000 sickly or abandoned grey seal pups since it moved to Gweek from its original home in St Agnes in 1975.

Happily for Uno, the first casualty of the current breeding season, she was found to be in good condition, though hungry and needing a good scrub to remove a few patches of oil on her fluffy white coat.

“She is being fed every four hours and the team are just starting to introduce her to fish soup,” said animal care team leader Tamara Cooper.

“She will be looked after in our indoor hospital for a few weeks, but as soon as she is feeding for herself she will move to the outdoor nursery pools.”

Tamara and her colleagues hope for a mild winter and fewer casualties than the 62 they rescued last winter.

“It can be pretty exhausting when the hospital is full of pups, many of them needing feeds in the middle of the night,” she said.

“We will be ready for whatever the winter throws at us though, and tiring though it can be it is worth the effort when we are able to safely return fully recovered pups to the wild.”

The Sanctuary was originally opened in St Agnes by Ken Jones in 1958, after he rescued a sickly pup from the beach just 100 yards from his home.

For many years he managed to care for both seal pups and oiled birds with just a single pool, but as word spread and more and more seal pups found their way to his door he was forced to move the operation to Gweek.

The Sanctuary has since become the busiest seal rescue facility in the UK and one of the busiest in Europe.

As well as its rescue work, it also provides a permanent home for several adult grey seals, three common seals, re-homed sea lions, a colony of Humboldt penguins, a pair of Asian short-clawed otters and a variety of rescued farm animals.