A SEAL pup found on the brink of death on a Dorset beach having been abandoned by her mother is back in the open sea today after a five-month rescue operation.

Narla the grey seal was just 48 hours old when she was discovered by a walker lying motionless on the freezing beach at Swanage last October.

The tiny mammal was so young she still had her umbilical cord attached and a coat of her baby white fur which seals normally shed within the first week.

Narla, who was mal- nourished as she had never had a feed from her mother, was found by a walker and was immediately wrapped in blankets to keep warm.

She was then whisked 200 miles to the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, Cornwall.

For the next three weeks she was given a fatty milk substitute every four hours a day to build up her strength and put on a course of antibiotics.

Narla spent five-and-a-half months convalescing while learning how to catch fish and interact with other seals.

She has now been given a clean bill of health and was this week released back into the Atlantic Ocean at a beach at Portreath, Cornwall.

It is hoped she will join up with a large colony which is known to thrive off the Cornish coast.

Rachael Vine, spokeswoman at the sanctuary, said: "Narla looked back a couple of times as she went into the sea but then she was off.

"We saw her bodysurf on the waves and then she was gone.

"It is such a rewarding feeling knowing that we have helped give her another chance at life."

Due to her young age, Narla has been given a tiny pink hat with the number 02 on so she can be tracked during her first 12 months at sea.

After this the hat, which is stuck to her fur with superglue, will fall off when she moults and Narla will be out on her own.

Narla was 2.5ft long and weighed just 26lb when she was found on a beach in Swanage, on October 14 last year.

It is thought her young mum was unsure how to care for her so swam off.