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| "I don't care if you don't let me join in any seal games, I'm prettier than all of you!" |
The lonely, ginger seal that was ostracized from her colony for being different has found a happy home, as the star attraction at a Russian zoological park!
Famed Russian photographer Anatoly Strakhov took photographs of the seal with the ginger-colored fur, light pink flippers and striking blue eyes on the remote Tyuleniy Island in the far east of Russia. The seal had been alienated from the colony and was photographed alone while all of the other seals played and hunted for food in the ocean.
Experts knew that the infant albino seal would probably not survive in the wild, so a plan was hatched to save "The World's Loneliest Seal". The seal was eventually captured and made the 7,890 mile trek to Russia's leading aquarium in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea coast. The female seal was named Nafanya, after a popular Russian cartoon character, and has rapidly become the zoological park's most famous resident!
As of now, Nafanya has not yet been allowed to mingle with the other seals as she has to undergo a month-long quarantine as a precautionary measure. Veterinarians initially believed that Nafanya was blind, but have happily discovered she can indeed see, but has problems seeing in bright sunlight due to her ice-blue eyes.
Befitting her new celebrity status, Nafanya now has her own live webcam, which can be viewed at
http://www.nafanya-sochi.ru/
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