"The two-month old seal must have jumped in the ocean somewhere in Canada or Greenland to look for food and got lost," said Elio Vicente, who is treating the seal at Zoomarine, a water theme park in the south of Portugal.

The hooded seal, named after its large elastic nasal cavity, suffered minor injuries from the trip and should be sent back to the cold waters of the north-Atlantic as soon as she recovers, Vicente said.

Another baby seal was seen adrift in the Portuguese islands of the Azores recently but has not yet been caught.