Sad ending for Warrior the stranded seal

Warrior, the sub-Antarctic fur seal who stranded on a beach in Southbroom gave up his brave fight in the early hours of Monday morning this week.

When uShaka Sea World veterinarians performed a post-mortem, the most obvious abnormality was large necrotic areas in the distal colon.

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“These necrotic areas would have allowed translocation of bacteria into the bloodstream leading to bacteraemia. Warrior had been severely constipated, weak and dehydrated for a long time before stranding on the beach,” explained Ann Kunz of the South African Association for Marine Research (Saambr).

“Caring for Warrior was a real honour for the entire team. We made sure he was comfortable and pain free and tried our best to gently encourage and help him but unfortunately, after just over a week in our care, he lost the battle,” said uShaka Sea World animal behaviourist, Hayley Tennant.

The seal had been reported on Friday, June 8. It was quite lethargic and a bit skinny but a night rescue attempt would have risked driving the seal back to the water.

With the assistance of the Southbroom Conservancy and Maser Security, the seal was guarded through the night until it returned to the water. It later returned to the beach close to where it had spent Friday evening. Southbroom conservancy members and residents were up at sunrise to send pictures to the Network to verify the animal was still on the beach and uShaka Marine World and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife collected the seal.

“Thank you to the Southbroom Conservancy (and in particular Anne Skelton and Peddy Bam), Maser Security, NSRI Station 20 Shelly Beach, Saambr (Sea World) and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife for their assistance and support,” said Ann.

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