An emaciated baby seal is recovering after it was found in some bushes on the side of a road in California.
An emaciated baby seal is recovering after he was found in bushes on the side of a busy road in California - in his second adventure of the sort.
The dehydrated and malnourished pup, who's been named Pipester, was spotted by a passerby and rescued by Hayward Police on Wednesday morning.
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Police believe the seal somehow got out of the nearby water, crossed busy Interstate 880 and found his way to the bushes.
"We were thinking it was probably a possum or weird cat but the caller insisted it was a seal," the department wrote on Facebook. "Well lo and behold it was a seal!"
It's not his first escape attempt. The same seal was previously treated by the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito after volunteers rescued him at Moss Landing Harbor last November.
After receiving treatment for malnutrition, he was tagged and sent back into the wild in December.
This time around, the center has come to his rescue again. Pipester will stay at the Marine Mammal Center until he is well enough to be released.
According to the center, Northern fur seals are a new victim of unusual ocean conditions. Last year, the center rescued more seals and sea lions than ever before in its 40-year history.
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Warmer waters are affecting the fish they usually feed on, making it harder for the critters to find food closer to home, according to the Marine Mammal Center.
“Northern fur seals are just the latest victims of the warm waters off of our coast,” says Dr. Shawn Johnson, Director of Veterinary Science at the center. “And as these conditions persist, we’re increasingly concerned about what this could mean for the next generation of sea lion pups
too."
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