A baby seal with dark fur and small whiskers resting on an orange surface in a facility, possibly for animal care or rehabilitation. 6:01
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A baby seal's new mom is made of old wetsuits

A seal pup circles the window of her pen and suckles on the glass, the way she would nurse from her mother. She is scared, and she's looking for her mom. more

Her name is Ili Pika. Melanie, an executive director at Seal Rescue Ireland, had gotten the call from someone who worked at an oyster farm. The pup was stuck on top of an oyster trestle bed with heavy machinery all around her, and the machines had probably scared her mother off.

A seal lies on a pale, wet surface beside a curved metal bar, partly in the water. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Ili Pika was found stuck on top of an oyster trestle bed, with heavy machinery all around her.

At the care center, her caregiver Hayleigh tried something simple. She gave Ili Pika a wetsuit mom, recycled wetsuit packed together into something a bit like a mother seal. Ili Pika cuddled right up to it and fell fast asleep.

A baby seal with dark fur and small whiskers resting on an orange surface in a facility, possibly for animal care or rehabilitation. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
A seal pup circles the window of her pen and suckles on the glass, the way she would nurse from her mother.

The goal was to get her healthy and up to weight, so she could go back to the wild and do well there. Hayleigh started her on fish, poured right into her bathtub. Ili Pika surprised them all. She was the smallest, and still one of the first common seals to start eating.

Once she settled in, the quiet pup showed a feisty side. She loved that bathtub and didn't want anyone near it. When Hayleigh tried to scrub it, Ili Pika slapped at the brush with her flippers going everywhere. She barked and spat, and she slapped her own belly to say go away.

Her team was glad to see it. "That's what we want to see in our seals," one of them says. It shows a seal is growing more wild and wants people to stay away. A seal headed back to the sea needs that fighting spirit.

Almost a month later she was ready for the rock pool. Carried outside, she looked around, curious and excited, then scooted out and into the water. It was her first time with other seals in care, which her team says is like a little kid's first day at school. She and another seal had a little sniff of each other and swam around, and soon there was a third friend.

Three dark seals swim near the surface of murky green water. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
In the rock pool, Ili Pika meets other seals in care for the first time.

The pools are the last stage of rehab, where seals pick up cues from each other, build muscle and learn to compete. Ili Pika was soon ruling the roost and getting all the fish, putting on two or three kilos a week instead of one. A common seal has to reach 30 kilos to be ready for the wild. Only about three to four thousand common seals are left in Ireland, and their numbers are falling.

Ili Pika isn't there yet. "I know she'll get there," says one of her carers. Four of the other seals are ready now, and they bounce down to the water together. Once they reach the sea, you can see their instincts kick in.

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