A young seal pup has been release back into the wild after being rescued following the on June 17 storms which battered Sydney's coastline. After being found exhausted and malnourished on South Curl Curl Beach, the long-nosed fur seal was taken into care at the Taronga Wildlife Hospital. Here he was nicknamed Elvis (after his tendency towards shuffling along on the soft floors of the hospital) and was fed diet of fresh fish supplemented by antibiotics and fluids.
After two weeks of care he was released into the wild again just outside Sydney Headlands in a joint operation by Taronga veterinarians, ORRCA (that's the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) and the RSPCA. The rescue follows a spike in seal incidents – ORRCA volunteers have already responded to 62 seal incidents this year, compared with 26 from 2015.
Photograph: Taronga Zoo
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service request that anyone who comes across a seal or other wildlife ashore, it's best to give them plenty of space to rest and recover – intervention is considered a last resort.