In the history of cute things, few can compete with a snow white baby seal named Maxwell who is now safely in the hands of the SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska after a harrowing adventure that started before he was born.
Maxwell got a rough start in life. A subsistence hunter, from a village on Nelson Island in the Bering Sea, killed his mother before he was born. Realizing that there was a live pup inside the seal, the hunter managed to delivery Maxwell safely. The hunter’s daughter found a hot line for the Seward rescue center and called for advice. The center staff instructed the local teacher on how to transport the pup safely to the nearest airport, where he was put on a plane for Anchorage. Rescue center staff members met him at the airport and drove him the rest of the way to his new, and hopefully temporary, home. They say he’s doing fine, despite his long journey, but he’s not out of the woods yet.
“Maxwell was close to full-term, and everything looks fairly normal,” said Pam Tuomi, a center vet. ”But pups that never received antibodies from their mother’s milk are at higher risk for infection, so we will keep Maxwell in quarantine and monitor him closely for the next few weeks.”
The SeaLife Center in Seward is Alaska’s only permanent facility licensed to house and rehabilitate stranded marine mammals, like Maxwell, and seabirds. How did they decide to name a baby seal Maxwell? Each year the center names its wards based on a particular theme. This year’s theme is caffeine.
“We hope to give Maxwell a second chance at life as a wild harbor seal,” said Brett Long, the center’s husbandry director. We hope he’ll get that chance too – good luck Maxwell!!
