The Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre, often abbreviated to Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary or Mablethorpe Wildlife Centre is a seal sanctuary and animal attraction in the coastal town of

Mablethorpe Mablethorpe is a seaside town in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England, part of the civil parish of Mablethorpe and Sutton.OS Explorer map 283:Louth and Mablethorpe: (1:25 000): The population including nearby Sutton-on-Sea was 12, ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

. It is a tourist attraction and works to rehabilitate sick and injured seals. It is located close to the seal breeding colony at

Donna Nook Donna Nook is a point on the low-lying coast of north Lincolnshire, England, north of the village of North Somercotes and south of Grimsby. The area, a salt marsh, is used by a number of Royal Air Force stations in Lincolnshire for bombing pract ...

and many of the animals it rescues are young

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

born there. Other animals visitors can see at the attraction include gibbons,

meerkats MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilo ...

and

birds of prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...

. The attraction works with a charity called Mablethorpe Animal Rescue and accommodates much rescued native British wildlife, as well as exotic species. In the 'Time Walking' zone, visitors can view fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct megafauna, including

allosaurus ''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alludin ...

, archaeopteryx and

mosasaur Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on ...

. Another part of the attraction is themed around the

ice ages An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

, and animals which have become extinct in Britain since then, featuring

Eurasian lynx The Eurasian lynx (''Lynx lynx'') is a medium-sized wild cat widely distributed from Northern, Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and Siberia, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas. It inhabits temperate and boreal forests up to an eleva ...

. There is also a café and gift shop.

Location and admissions

The Seal Sanctuary is located on Quebec Road, North End, close to the sand dunes, and is open 10:00 to 16:30, 10 months a year. There is a fee for entry

History

Before the Seal Sanctuary opened, the site served as a look-out point in the Second World War, as a firing range and a campsite. The attraction opened in Mablethorpe after an animal attraction called the Animal and Bird Garden, founded in 1965 in Suffolk, was flooded and the owners (Jerry and Rene King) decided to relocate. The seal sanctuary received its first seal in 1974, opening to the public in the same year, still under the name ''Animal and Bird Garden''. In 1988 an appeal in the Daily Mail helped the Seal Sanctuary to raise £20,000 to deal with an outbreak of phocine distemper virus. The Seal Hospital opened in 1990. In 2013 the attraction changed its official name from ''Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary'' to ''the Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre''. There was a fire at the Seal Sanctuary in September 2016. The Education Room reopened in February 2017.The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums - Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary and Wildlife Centre
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References

{{authority control Zoos in England Tourist attractions in Lincolnshire Seal sanctuaries Mablethorpe Organisations based in Lincolnshire

Location and admissions

History

See also

References