Pretoria - A tale of perseverance and good fortune has seen a young Cape fur seal relocate from the unfettered waters of the Eastern Cape to the nurturing environment at the National Zoological Garden in Pretoria.
The seal is now known as Captain-Z, having been given the name by the affectionate zoo staff.
He was rescued twice off the coast near Gqeberha, facing death. But he is now making good strides at the zoo in Pretoria after a harrowing ordeal over the past eight months.
On December 18 last year, a one-year-old Cape fur seal male was taken in for rehabilitation at the Bayworld Aquarium in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape. He came in with a damaged left eye and an extremely poor body condition.
He only weighed 11kg (Cape fur seal pups should weigh approximately 20kg at this age).
Bayworld is a permitted and accredited oceanarium and rehabilitation facility with many years of experience in seal rehabilitation and release.
Director of Marketing at the SA Nation Biodiversity Institute Nontsikelelo Mpulo said after he had recovered and his condition seemed good, weighing 18.3kg, he was released to the local seal colony in Algoa Bay in March this year.
However, five weeks later, he was found ashore some 400km away from his original release site. He had lost a third of his body weight and only weighed 13kg.
“After careful consideration by Bayworld, it was determined that he should not be released again,” she said.
The seal was earlier this month sent to the zoo in Pretoria with the assistance of The Bataleurs. This non-profit organisation assists beneficiary organisations with flights of an environmental nature.
Volunteer pilot Roger Bozzoli donated his time and aircraft to fly Captain-Z to his new home in Pretoria.
On his arrival at the Pretoria Zoo, the seal was placed in an off-display area to allow him to settle into his new environment until he was ready to join the resident population of fur seals.
He now weighs 24.5kg and conservation staff report that he is doing well in his new environment.
They stressed that Captain-Z will not be on display to the public as yet as he is still skittish. He will first have to be introduced to the other seals, one at a time.
According to the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town’s website, Cape fur seals live only on the coast of southern Africa, ranging from southern Angola to South Africa's Algoa Bay.
It is stated that there are about 2 million of these seals in Southern Africa, and although many of them adapt well to inhabiting populated areas like harbours and ports, the vast majority of Cape fur seals form communities on isolated beaches on the Namibian coast, and on protected islands on South Africa's West Coast where grazing is good, and predators are few.
Pretoria News