Aww...Curious Cows Help Save Seal Pup Stuck in Mud After Swept by Tide Into UK Marshland

A birdwatcher at Frampton Marsh Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire, U.K., says he didn't find any birds through his telescope, but rather, a much more usual scene: about a dozen curious cows surrounding a seal pup stuck in mud.

Ian Ellis, 67, told ABC News that he was birdwatching about three weeks ago when he "saw the seal was in distress," so he rang for help at the marshland by the North Sea, from where the seal was likely swept in by a tide.

The marsh is under the protection of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which then contacted local seal rescue organization Skegness Natureland Seal Sanctuary for guidance, he said.

"We were able to give advice about how to take the seal out of the situation, and Ellis was able to recover it with the help of wardens," Seal Sanctuary director Duncan Yeadon told ABC News today. "They took her back here to the seal hospital, where she's still recovering in at the moment."...