Current:Home > ScamsBlind seal gives birth and nurtures the pup at an Illinois zoo -AssetScope
Blind seal gives birth and nurtures the pup at an Illinois zoo
View
Date:2025-04-15 19:02:05
BROOKFIELD, Ill. (AP) — A grey seal found stranded and blind more than a decade ago on an island in Maine has given birth at a Chicago-area zoo and is now “a very attentive mother” to her newborn, zoo officials said Friday.
The 11-year-old seal named “Georgie” gave birth on Feb. 17 to a nearly 35-pound (15.9-kilogram) male pup at the Brookfield Zoo. He’s gained 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) in his first week on his mother’s extremely rich milk, and has been practicing his swimming skills in a pool, zoo officials said.
After Georgie was found stranded on an island in Georgetown, Maine, near the Atlantic Ocean in 2013, it was determined she was blind in her left eye and functionally blind in her right eye.
Due to her impaired vision, authorities with the National Marine Fisheries Service decided she could not be released back into the wild. She arrived in 2020 at the Brookfield Zoo, west of downtown Chicago.
But Georgie’s vision loss hasn’t affected her ability to care for her newborn — she’s nurturing the pup and has proven to be “a very attentive mother,” said Mark Gonka, the zoo’s associate director of marine mammal care and conservation.
“Grey seals have a keen sense of smell as well as a repertoire of vocalizations. Georgie is able to locate her pup by his distinct smell and call,” Gonka said in a statement.
Like Georgie, the pup’s father, a 23-year-old grey seal named Kiinaq, was also stranded in the wild and deemed unreleasable when he was only a few months old.
The Brookfield Zoo said the newborn pup’s birth from two parents of wild descent is helping to increase the genetic diversity of the grey seal population in accredited North American zoos and aquariums.
Grey seals face threats that include entanglement in fishing gear, illegal hunting, chemical contaminants and climate change, the zoo said.
veryGood! (7)
Related
- Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
- A Florida earthquake? Really? Initial skepticism gives way to science. Here's why
- One dead, five injured in shooting at a New York City subway station. Shooter is at large
- Hiker kills coyote with his bare hands after attack; tests confirm the animal had rabies
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Usher Marries Jennifer Goicoechea in Vegas Ceremony During Super Bowl 2024 Weekend
- Chiefs' exhilarating overtime win in Super Bowl 58 shatters all-time TV ratings record
- Dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Rafah
- Connie Chiume, Black Panther Actress, Dead at 72: Lupita Nyong'o and More Pay Tribute
- The best Taylor Swift lyrics, era by era, to soundtrack your romantic Valentine's Day
Ranking
- The Daily Money: Disney+ wants your dollars
- Snowmobiler, skier killed in separate Rocky Mountain avalanches in Colorado, Wyoming
- Everything you need to know about Selection Sunday as March Madness appears on the horizon
- Migrants in Mexico have used CBP One app 64 million times to request entry into U.S.
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- A judge has blocked enforcement of an Ohio law limiting kids’ use of social media amid litigation
- West Virginia agriculture bill stokes fears about pesticide-spewing logging facility
- Ex-aide to former Illinois House Speaker Madigan gets 2.5 years for perjury
Recommendation
Taylor Swift Eras Archive site launches on singer's 35th birthday. What is it?
Hospitals are fighting a Medicare payment fix that would save tax dollars
Jon Stewart's 'Daily Show' return is so smooth, it's like he never left
The Proposed Cleanup of a Baltimore County Superfund Site Stirs Questions and Concerns in a Historical, Disinvested Community
Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
Chiefs' exhilarating overtime win in Super Bowl 58 shatters all-time TV ratings record
Bob Edwards, longtime NPR 'Morning Edition' host, dies at 76: 'A trusted voice'
With Western military aid increasingly uncertain, Ukraine builds its own weapons