When Ian Ellis made his trip to the Frampton Marsh Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire, U.K., the birdwatcher didn't find any feathered friends.
But he did stumble across a baby seal. Oh, and its entourage of about 30 cows.
The pup was stuck in mud and its presence had attracted the nearby bovine to gather around the seal.
It was because of the cattle's unusual behaviour that Ellis decided to zoom in little closer with his telescope, according to ITV. That's when he spotted the five-day-old pup and made a call to the Skegness Natureland Seal Sanctuary.
Ellis and caretakers at the reserve were able to rescue the seal from the marsh. Officials believe the animal was probably swept in by a tide from the North Sea, according to ABC News.
Veterinary staff at the sanctuary say the seal was underweight, dehydrated and suffering from a lung infection at the time it was rescued. Were it not for Ellis and the curious cows, the seal would most likely have died.
The pup is expected to be out of the hospital by the end of the month. Once it's rehabilitated it'll be released back into the wild, the Daily Mail points out.
But a new lease on life isn't the only thing sanctuary workers gave the animal. They also named her Celebration — in honour of the park's 50th anniversary.
This isn't the first (or most bizarre case) of seal-on-cow crossovers. An Australian cattle farmer found a baby seal on his farm back in May, nearly 34 kilometres from the ocean coastline.
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