A hooded seal, called Sahara, released in the Orkneys after being nursed back to health in a UK sanctuary, has swum 1,000 miles in the wrong direction.

Boffins at the National Seal Sanctuary in Gweek, Cornwall, fitted the mammal with a satellite tracking transmitter after helping the Arctic-based creature recuperate from near starvation after it was found, nearly bald, in the Canary Islands.

Now it has returned to the warm waters where it was originally rescued and Spanish marine biologists are now testing it to see if it should be returned to the sanctury or Spanish waters.