Scottish seal pup turns up at pub door near Bristol

An adventurous seal pup made its way from Scotland to the front door of a pub near Bristol.

The lone pup made the 300-mile journey and turned up at The Old Lock and Weir in Hanham on Sunday.

British Divers Marine Life Rescue Service attended to safely rescue the animal and said it had been tagged over the border on 21 June.

Landlord Daniel Rawlins said: "He was like a mini-celebrity. He was quite friendly and cute."

After calling the RSPCA for advice, Mr Rawlins was told to let the pup, called Neoprene, return to the water.

But the thirsty seal waddled back and reappeared at the kitchen hatch of the pub.

"It's not every day you expect to find a baby seal outside the pub," said bar and kitchen worker John Jefferies.

Mr Rawlins said the seal "appeared out of nowhere" and was spotted by a colleague and some customers.

"It was amazing. Totally out of the blue, " he said.

"You could see he had been tagged and was used to being around humans."

The seal, later renamed Nacho, was taken to RSCPA West Hatch in Taunton, Somerset, for some rest and recuperation due to being underweight and suffering with seal pox, which had caused some hair loss.

It weighed 33kg when it was tagged but was only 14.8kg when it was weighed again after its rescue.

Mr Jefferies said they were asked to contain the pup until rescuers arrived.

He said: "We used pallets to contain him. It wasn't easy but our main concern was we didn't harm him.

"Fortunately it was raining so the ground was wet and we put wet towels down. He seemed happy and safe there and proved very popular with our customers who were pleased to see wildlife on our doorstep.

"He was probably younger than 12 months and needed to be fed-up a little.

"It is a hell of a trip though, we thought it must be a local seal but it made the trip all the way down from Scotland."

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