Baby seals! They’re so cute! I was going to write an entire post mainly gushing about how cute they are and encouraging you to watch this great news story that features several baby seals doing super adorable things. And, I guess, I’m still doing that; however, after a little research, I realized there was more to this story than just how cute these marine mammals can be. The 1975-76 winter was a harsh one. In the late spring of 1976 several seal pups were found along the Massachusetts and Maine coasts, separated from their mothers. A seal pup normally stays with its mother until it is six months old and can live on its own. These baby seals couldn’t survive on their own, so the New England Aquarium took them in and fed them a substitute for seal milk (mainly heavy cream and cottage cheese). The Aquarium didn’t have a team dedicated to animal rescue, so the regular staff cared for the seals in addition to their normal duties. Caring for the seals ended up being an around the clock job. They had to be fed 5 times a day at equal intervals, which meant overnight. Rather than having staff drive in to work in the middle of the night after only a few hours of sleep, several staff members took seals home, and fed and cared for them there. more
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