On the road: lost animal surprises police officers and rescuers
New Haven - A surprise animal guest caused a lot of questions last Saturday. Completely removed from its habitat, the animal appeared in the middle of a town in the US state of Connecticut.
When alert police officers arrived at the scene, they couldn't believe their eyes.
"I'm sure they thought it was a joke, but it wasn't," New Haven police officer Christian Bruckhart told"WTNH".
Officers initially cordoned off the area to protect the little guy and notified the nearby Mystic Aquarium.
"It was definitely concerning for us when we saw that he was in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the city," said Francesca Battaglia, an animal rescue technician at the Mystic Aquarium.
This was not the first contact the seal had with animal rescuers. It had already been spotted in another city last week.
While the young seal still looked "wide awake and fine" then, the aquarium staff thought they could simply take her back to a safe beach, but they were obviously very wrong.
The young seal was probably just following its instincts
When the seal was found again, it was next to the Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill in New Haven.
"We don't know why it was here. I assumed it was for the clam pizza," joked Officer Bruckhart.
Upon re-examination, the animal was found to be slightly underweight. It could therefore be that it had escaped from the water to protect itself from stronger conspecifics.
The young animal has now been placed in the aquarium, where it will initially be nursed back to health.
The aim is of course to release the seal back into the wild, but this could take weeks or even months.