A large elephant seal was spotted early Tuesday morning in a coastal town near Cape Town, South Africa, after presumably taking a wrong turn. A rescue team got the animal back into the sea.
The nearly two-ton seal, according to an animal welfare group a young male, made its way through a suburb of the port city of Gordons Bay on Tuesday morning.
Local residents came out of their houses to watch the scene and filmed the seal. “This is unreal. Hey friend, how did you get here?” a woman says to the animal in one of the recordings.
Authorities tried to stop the elephant seal by parking patrol cars around it. It laid its head on the hood of a car and climbed halfway over another car before escaping. Then he continued his journey on the sidewalk, reports news agency AP.
The elephant seal eventually stopped next to a shopping center. Animal welfare officials feared it was too far from the ocean to find its way back. They feared he would become exhausted and dehydrated.
Elephant seals can weigh 4,000 kilos
Elephant seals are a genus of very large seals and are among the larger living marine predators. They owe their name to their size and the trunk-like nose of the males.
Adult males can grow up to six meters long and weigh 4,000 kilos. Females are much smaller and grow to a maximum of three meters and weigh 650 kilos.
Sedated and brought to nearby bay
A team of experts and a veterinarian from the city eventually sedated the huge seal. He was eventually transported to his natural habitat in a nearby bay with a transport cart.
The local animal welfare organization Cape of Good Hope later posted a video on social media. It shows the seal walking across the beach towards the ocean. “Sea you later,” the organization wrote under the video.
