Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/hissing-baby-seal/

Animals tend to be snappy to humans when they find it hard to trust due to previous experiences. Baby animals who aren’t taught by parents about socializing grow to be hostile. They still don’t know how to move around the environment, making them skeptical of almost everything. People must be patient and alert during the rescue mission — to avoid accidents for both rescuer and rescuee. Marcus Monaghan showed how to handle a hissing baby animal he rescued in Ireland.

@mariusmonaghan5 Made a new friend today 🥺 ☘️ #ireland #sealrescue ♬ original sound – Steven Galloway

During a trip, Marcus rescued an orphaned baby seal — who was a very snappy creature. The baby seal was angry at Marcus even though he saved him. Nevertheless, Marcus still finds the baby seal adorable — the rescuer just smiled and laughed every time the pup got snappy. Monaghan shared a video of the baby seal on his TikTok account, which amazingly gained 22.9 million views. In the video, Marcus showed how he took care of the baby seal despite the hissing he received. Three videos about the hissing baby seal were posted on Marcus’s TikTok account. The second video was about their ride to the rehabilitation center.

Since the seal is already an orphan, he needs to be taken care of by professionals. Marcus took the snappy baby to the Seal Rescue center in Wexford, Ireland. Melanie, the executive director, explained the pup’s condition, and it turned out he was underweight. “He must have been orphaned before his mother taught him how to eat, so he was unable to hunt, he was unable to feed on his own,” Melanie shared. The team named the baby seal Phoenix and engaged him in all sorts of training. Phoenix was introduced to a “fish school” to learn how to eat. His training involved a bathtub where he was given fish to eat — he was a bad eater during the first sessions.

“Eventually, he did get the hang of things. He was moved out to the pools,” Melanie explained. “He was able to compete against other seals and learn from their behaviors a bit,” she continued. Phoenix was able to show improvements after a few months — the once snapping seal was nurtured well and is now able to socialize. For this reason, the rehabilitation knew it was the right time to release Phoenix to his beloved home. It was a great thing that Marcus found the poor baby seal in the wild and brought him to rehab, where he was able to improve Phoenix. The baby seal was ready to face the wild with everything he had learned in the center.

The team sent Phoenix and Proxima, another baby seal, to the wild like the first day of school. Both seals seemed to be hesitant at first, but Phoenix put on a brave act — he took the first step to experience his natural home. With Phoenix’s bravery, Proxima got motivated to step outside her cage. They are now finally home and free to lead their own lives. It was a proud moment; you can watch it in the video below.

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Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog