Chappy, the underweight gray seal pup who was found on its stomach on a street in New Haven, Conn., last month, drawing nationwide attention and local police affection, has died, the aquarium that was caring for him announced on Monday.
The Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., which was treating Chappy in its animal rescue clinic, said in a statement that he had severe digestive problems.
No one knows how Chappy, who was only a few weeks old, wandered about a quarter- or half-mile away from water. But he was suffering from dehydration, malnutrition, and a mild case of pneumonia when New Haven police officers rescued him on Feb. 16, after someone had called 911 to report that a seal was “running back and forth” near a bridge underpass.
Although Chappy responded well to his initial treatment, aquarium officials said, he started to have digestive issues as he transitioned into a whole fish diet, after a diet of diluted fish formula and fluids intended to fatten him up to a normal 35 pounds. The aquarium did not say when he died.
A necropsy performed on Chappy showed that he had died of mesenteric torsion, a twisting of the intestines that cuts off blood supply to a large portion of the gastrointestinal tract.
“This condition can be challenging to diagnose and has a poor prognosis,” the aquarium said in a statement. It said that its staff members were “devastated” by his death.
“The reality of working with stranded animals can be tough sometimes, but Chappy was surrounded by love until the very end,” the aquarium said.
The aquarium also found small pieces of plastic in Chappy’s stomach, though that was unrelated to his immediate cause of death, according to the statement.
The condition that killed Chappy is exceedingly rare, said Dr. Cara Field, the medical director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., the world’s largest marine mammal hospital.
The center, which rescues between 800 and 1,800 marine mammals annually, sees only one or two cases of it a year, at most, Dr. Field said on Tuesday. Survival rates are very slim.
“Emergency abdominal surgery is the only option, with no guarantee of success,” Dr. Field said. “Even with this drastic action, after catching the issue and diagnosing, blood being cut off to the intestines and gut can result in death within 24 hours for a marine mammal.”
While the cause of the disease is unclear, she said that plastic pollution “certainly could cause it,” citing cases in which whales that had ingested plastic had blockages in the digestive track that led to torsion.
While Chappy was recovering at the aquarium, several New Haven police officers visited him, said Officer Christian Bruckhart, a Police Department spokesman.
Chappy was named for the street where he was found, Chapel Street, in an industrial area of New Haven.
Seals have been visitors to Long Island Sound for many years and can be seen coming ashore to catch sun and rest on sand or rocks, said Dennis Riordan, the president of the Menunkatuck Audubon Society, a wildlife protection group that serves New Haven and many surrounding communities.
Gray seals are commonly found in coastal waters throughout the North Atlantic Ocean. Adult males can reach 10 feet long and weigh about 880 pounds.
Officer Bruckhart said on Tuesday that his officers had been looking forward to Chappy’s release back into the wild. “We are appreciative of Mystic Aquarium’s efforts to help our little buddy,” he said, “and would like to thank them for their care.”
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