In Ireland, a guy named Marius spotted an orphaned seal.
He and his friends went on a trip and saw a lone seal named Phoenix. They decided to bring him to a nearby shelter so he would have proper medical care.
Phoenix was laid down on a blanket while Marius and his friends took turns pouring water at his tail so that he would survive the long trip.
He had this very spicy attitude at the beginning.
It was as if he didn’t like being rescued at all. He spat and hissed at them whenever they poured water on his tail. But they knew that, albeit all that hissing, he was happy and content while they were cruising.
They dropped him off at Seal Rescue Ireland, and Marius was delighted that they could save Phoenix and that there was a shelter willing to take him in. He was assured that he would recover and be sent back into the wild soon.
Melanie was assigned to take care of Phoenix.
At that time, he only weighed around 22 pounds, which was very much underweight for his age. Melanie deduced that Phoenix was probably orphaned before he was taught how to hunt and eat.
So they placed him in a tub and underwent “fish training.” They taught him how to feed the fish with his mouth. He was struggling at first, but then they saw good progress in his behavior. He started to get comfortable and get used to how it is to catch the fish and eat it.
Soon enough, Phoenix gained weight, and they took him to the pool area along with the other seals.
At first, he was curious about this new environment, but he quickly adapted to his fellow seals. He competed with them, especially when it came to hunting and feeding.
Being in the pool also allowed him to socialize with the other seals. His playful nature soon came out, and it looked like he had learned to deal with his kind.
A few months later, Phoenix grew bigger and was deemed safe to return to the wild.
“It’s sort of like a kid’s first day of school. It’s big. It’s scary. It’s the open world,” Melanie described that moment to The Dodo.
Phoenix was the first one out. He was hesitant at first, but he thought this was finally home. He crawled his way to the water and waded his way through. He knew he was meant to be there when he was in the water.
The other seal that was released that they, named Proxima, saw how comfortable Phoenix was in the open sea. He followed him into the open, and the two of them were finally free.
According to Melanie, there are not a lot of common seals in Ireland.
Only about three to four thousand of them are left in Irish waters. Their organization is always ready to rescue every common seal and do their best to bring them back to the wild.
They are very thankful to Marius for rescuing Phoenix and bringing him straight to them. Saving him was a huge help for the seal population in Ireland.
Check out the video of Phoenix’s rescue and release below!
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