Postman rescues baby seal found outside front door

By Ed Chatterton

A lost young seal pup needed rescuing after being found outside the front door of a house by a postman.

Wildlife rescue volunteers were called after the stranded marine animal was discovered on a residential street in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk.

She had been spotted the day before under some parked cars before the shocked postie stumbled across her on the doorstep during his morning rounds.

Dan Goldsmith, from Marine and Wildlife Rescue, took the seal to the RSPCA's East Winch Wildlife Centre where she was affectionately named ‘Cold Call'.

She was only around a week to two weeks old and weighed 11.8kg (26lbs) and will now require months of rehabilitation before being released back into the wild.

Cold Call is just one of 32 gray seal pups who are currently being cared for at the center after many were displaced following some storms and tidal surge last November.

Evangelos Achilleos, centre manager, said: “Cold Call is just one of the many seal pups we are currently caring for as we had a large number of orphaned greys come in due to the tides and storms.

"Even now, displaced seal pups are still being rescued.

"Sadly, some seals were swept away from their moms in the high tides or some sustained wounds from being hit against rocks.

“There have been some really curious places these seals have been found - but I have to say Cold Call is one of the more unusual, although we are caring for one seal called Anx who was found on the edge of a muddy field.

More from this section

US Supreme Court weighs transgender athlete bans

Spanish star Julio Iglesias accused of sexual assault by two ex-employees

Myanmar pro-military party claims Suu Kyi's seat in junta-run poll

“Seals require a lot of care while at the center and one of the biggest challenges is getting them to eat for themselves unaided.

"The road to recovery is always long and Cold Call and the other grey seal pups could be with us at least five months.

“We are so grateful to all our colleagues from the various seal rescue groups, such as the Friends of Horsey Seals, BDMLR, Marine and Wildlife Rescue and our officers, who are out there checking on the seals that have been reported as needing help.”

Dan added: “We continue to receive calls for many seals since the combination of recent high tides and births of seal pups continues to reach its peak.

"We received our first call for assistance in 2026 at 8am with reports of a pup that appeared in a car park in Gorleston and was trying to get beneath one of the parked cars.

“Despite a thorough search by our team, we could not find her, although we were certain that she may have shuffled into an adjacent garden.

“However the next day we were alerted that the pup had been found in a front garden of a house by a postman delivering to an address close to the car park the pup had originally been seen in.

“We rescued the pup and transferred her to the team at East Winch Wildlife Centre.

"Although she was fairly bright and alert, there was not a chance the pup could be returned to a local beach; she was significantly underweight for her age, especially as she had started to moult the white coat.

"We are very grateful to the team at East Winch for taking the pup.”