The Cornish Seal Sanctuary

This weekend my husband and I took our three daughters to the lovely county of Cornwall, one of the seven (or six; it’s under dispute) Celtic nations, to visit the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. Although all the girls love seals, our middle child, Buttercup, wants to be a marine biologist specializing in studying pinnipeds when she grows up, so this was her dream trip and her official birthday present.

It was both a wonderful seal rehabilitation and rescue center, and gorgeous beyond the telling. It’s in Gweek, a small village located on an estuary of the Helford River, and its called a Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty for a damn good reason. The view as you were walking around the seal sanctuary was absolutely amazing.

The seal sanctuary does excellent work, and while most of the rescued seals are released back into the wild, there are some seals (common and grey Atlantic seals) and sea lions living there who cannot – mostly for medical reasons – ever be on their own again. They remain the well-cared-for and much loved ambassadors of pinnipeds in the sanctuary. 

My favorite of the seals was Willow, a grey seal with a thyroid condition who needs medication on a daily basis. She’s quite the show-off, and I was deeply enamored of her grande dame personality. 

I also fell in love with Jinx, a young seal with a gastric issue that means she can’t feed in the wild. They’ve done such a good job with feeding Jinx at the center that now she’s as round as she is long. They said they may need to put her on a diet, which I thought was unfair … what is the POINT of being a seal if you can’t be fat???

As a very special joint birthday treat, our daughters got to feed the seals … including the two flippered gentlemen pictured below, Pumpkin and Badger.

This was, according to Buttercup, the best thing that has ever happened to her in her entire life.

Additionally, they each got to “adopt” a seal. They adopted an elderly fellow named Babyface, and the pups he wasn’t supposed to be able to father – Buddy and Bo. The pups were born at the sanctuary unexpectedly (their mum was on contraception, but that elderly rake Babyface was able to get around that with super seal-sperm somehow) and as captive born babies can never be released safely. All the females were removed from Babyface’s pool (he should be renamed Babydaddy) lest he impregnate them again.

I can only hope they were moved more than 100 feet away, because Babyface clearly has mad skillz and the fertility of the Greek god Zeus.

Babyface, Buddy, and Bo all share a pool with a lad named Jarvis whom thus far Babyface hasn’t been able to put up the duff.  I wouldn’t underestimate Babyface again, though. If anyone can get another guy preggo, it’s this furry grey Valentino!

As well as seals, the sanctuary is the home to a colony of penguins, various farm animals available for petting, and two Asian small-clawed otters named Apricot and Harris who stole my heart.

Due to some unexplainable quirk in my psyche, I adore otters, meerkats, badgers, and skunks.  Why I love these fluffy, whiffy predators so much is beyond me. I just do. I was therefore full of much squealing when Apricot and Harris were frolicking around their enclosure, eating bloody bits of raw prey-items and spraying spraint … a mixture of urine and feces they use to scent-mark their territory. I’m one of those people who finds the smell of spraint quite bearable – it smells a little like chamomile tea and perfume musk to me. Other people often describe the odor as ‘putrid fish’ so clearly there is a biochemical reaction to the fragrance that’s different for every sniffer.

All I can say is I thought they smelled fine, but I would have put up with a heavy stink just to remain close enough to them to hear the little chirp-squeaks they make when they are vocalizing. OMG the cute. So much cute!!

Speaking of cute … three of the penguins saw Bubble’s long brown braid when she was standing with her back to the glass of their tank and decided to do their best to try to catch it.

Obviously, they couldn’t through 3 inches of plexiglass, but watching them chase her braid as she swung it around for them was mind-blowingly precious from my point of view. Well, that and her insane giggles of joy as she played with penguins. I was really enjoying that part, too.

If you are ever fortunate enough to vacation in Cornwall, I cannot recommend the Cornish Seal Sanctuary highly enough. You can also donate to the sanctuary or adopt online. Jinx would thank you!