BROOKFIELD, Ill. — A gray seal found stranded and blind more than a decade ago on an island in Maine has given birth at a Chicago-area zoo and is now “a very attentive mother” to her newborn, zoo officials said Friday.
The 11-year-old seal named “Georgie” gave birth on Feb. 17 to a nearly 35-pound (15.9-kilogram) male pup at the Brookfield Zoo. He’s gained 15 pounds (6.8 kilograms) in his first week on his mother’s extremely rich milk, and has been practicing his swimming skills in a pool, zoo officials said.
After Georgie was found stranded on an island in Georgetown, Maine, near the Atlantic Ocean in 2013, it was determined she was blind in her left eye and functionally blind in her right eye.
Due to her impaired vision, authorities with the National Marine Fisheries Service decided she could not be released back into the wild. She arrived in 2020 at the Brookfield Zoo, west of downtown Chicago.