TWO young seal pups are on the road to recovery after being rescued, battered and exhausted, by conservationists.

The pups somehow managed to swim hundreds of miles across the North Sea and ended up, lost and alone, on the North Yorkshire coast at Scarborough.

Grey seal pup Matilda and common seal Augustus were both wearing numbered flipper tags which have helped staff unravel their stories.

Matilda was tagged as part of a research programme on the archipelago of Heligoland in December, and rescued from Scarborough’s North Bay earlier this year as she was being buffeted against rocks in stormy weather,

Around the same time common seal pup Augustus was rescued from South Bay, after managing to haul himself onto the beach amid hundreds of people enjoying a sunny day during the half-term holidays.

Details on his tag showed he had been rescued last summer by a facility at the mouth of the River Elbe in Friedrichskoog, Germany.

The German centre revealed he had been suffering from an infection where his umbilical cord had been and they released him on October 3.

After their original release Matilda somehow covered 367 miles and Augustus 335 miles to reach Scarborough, where both are now making good progress at the Sea Life Centre’s seal sanctuary.

Matilda had suffered a badly bruised face in her encounter with the rocks, but a course of antibiotics helped her heal and she transferred from the indoor hospital to the outdoor convalescence pool earlier this week.

She should be fit enough to resume life in the wild within a month.

However, Augustus faces a longer recuperation, having contracted pneumonia, but is said to be responding well to treatment.

“It’s a bit of a worry that Augustus needed rescuing again soon after being freed from Friedrichskoog,” said aquarist Amy McFarlane.

“It’s last chance saloon for him, because if he ends up getting rescued again that will be a sure sign he just isn’t cut out to make it in the wild, and he would have to be given a permanent home.

“He is doing well though, and should move to the outdoor pools in a week or so, after which we will make sure he is as fit and healthy as possible before we put him back out to sea.”

She added: “Hopefully, the weather will be much milder by then and he will be able to feed and grow more easily and be properly prepared when winter arrives again.”