Baby sea lion dies after mysterious 2,500 mile journey

Locals shocked to find animal which is hardly ever seen near their island

'Fox' the sea lion after being rescued on Raivavae Island (Tevitau Robson, Facebook)

A baby sea lion found around 2,500 miles from home in French Polynesia has died.

The animal, named by locals as Fox, was found on the remote island of Raivavae on 20 August.

Despite a week-long effort to save it, vets conclude she was just too weak to survive her ordeal in the Pacific Ocean.

Islanders think she probably drifted from New Zealand, though South America and the Galapagos Islands were further possibilities.

A vet suggested its mother might have been "attacked by sharks."

One of the first people to see Fox was Tevitau Robson, who told Tahiti-Infos that residents tried and failed to feed fish to the sea lion.

"The vet told us to give him a mixture of milk and eggs,” he said.

"We had to coax her. It was not easy to give. She did not understand what was happening."

Fox was put in a plastic pool at the local hospital (Tevitai Robson, Facebook)

With no vet on the island of just 950 people, nurses from the local hospital were forced to care for it.

She was kept in a small plastic pool before being flown to a clinic in neighbouring Tahiti on Monday.

At just 8kg, it was far below the healthy weight for its age and was also carrying injuries, including an inflammation of its abdomen.

The clinic put out an appeal for local fisherman to supply live octopuses for Fox to eat, but by Tuesday it had died.

Local Tahiti vet Olivier Betremieux told the BBC he “spent 16 hours a day for seven days” trying to save the animal.

He said: “Wildlife saving can be tricky and this little guy was found almost at the end of his road.”