2 -ton elephant seal taking
/ News/ AP
Elephant seals return to California beach
A large elephant stamp took a wrong turn and was seen that it was filled with a street in a coastal city in South Africa at dawn on Tuesday, surprising residents and inspiring a rescue effort to take it back to the sea.
The two -ton seal, that an animal welfare group said he was a young man, headed through a suburb of Gordon’s Bay, near Cape City.
The locals left the houses and recorded videos.
“This is unreal. Hello, brother, how did you get here?” A woman asked.
The police and a local security company tried to contain the seal using the parking patrol around them. He rested his huge head on the hood of a car and staggered halfway over another before freeing himself, crossing a road and continuing a sidewalk.
The seal finally stopped next to a mall. Animal welfare officials worried that it was too far from the ocean to find the way back and could be exhausted and dehydrated. They estimated that it weighed around two tons (4,400 pounds). Elephant seals can grow to twice that size.
According to the local corporal of Good Hope Spca, the southern elephant seals are the world’s largest seal species and are commonly found in sub -Antarctic regions, not in South Africa. But from time to time, the seals of lonely elephants, usually young men, are directed to the coast of South Africa.
A team of Marina Wildlife Specialists and a veterinarian from the city sedated the seal and guided it to an animal transport trailer to be returned to their natural habitat in a nearby bay.
The Cabo de Good Hope Spca then published a video on the social networks of the seal that opens up through a beach to the ocean.
“Be you later,” the video said.
“Wild animals do not always follow the script, and the unexpected trip of this seal to a residential area created a real cause of concern,” Belinda Abraham, spokesman for the local SPCA, said in a statement. “With so many mobile parts (traffic, spectators and a massive marine mammal in trouble, rapid coordination and a clear approach to keep all safe were needed.”
- In:
- South Africa