Residents in a Cape Town suburb had an unexpected visitor this week after a large elephant seal was found lounging on the pavement of a busy road, sparking a rescue effort to get him back to sea.
The two-tonne seal, which an animal welfare group said was a young male, was found over a kilometre inland in a suburb in Gordon’s Bay, near South Africa’s legislative capital.
A nine-hour coordinated rescue involving multiple agencies unfolded, according to the animal charity Cape of Good Hope SPCA.
Police and a local security company initially attempted to contain him by parking their cars around him.
However, videos show the seal resting his head on the hood of one car and half-climbing over another before slipping free, crossing a road and continuing up a pavement.
The seal eventually stopped next to a shopping centre.
A team of marine wildlife specialists and a city veterinarian sedated the seal and guided him into an animal transport trailer to be returned to his natural habitat at a nearby bay.
The local Cape of Good Hope SPCA later posted a video on social media of the seal making his way down a beach and toward the ocean. “Sea you later,” the video said.
According to the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, while the sighting of southern elephant seals are rare in South Africa, occasionally they can venture along the coastline.
However, they added that making it this far inland and into a town is “highly unusual”.
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